4th-Plessy+vs.+Ferguson

=​ The Trial of Plessy vs. Ferguson = = = = = ​Homer Aldoph Plessy was a 30 year old man. He was a shoemaker from the great New Orleans, Louisiana. Homer Adolph Plessy was only 1/8th African American, although his family was passed as white, Plessy was still considered black. On June 7, 1892, in the vast world, he purchased a ticket for a railroad car to go to Covington, Louisiana. Keep in mind that if an African American sat in the white's only section he/she could be charged with a $25 fine, or they could spend 20 days behind the cold bars. After Plessy purchased his ticket and walked into the railroad car, he sat in the white's only section. The conductor arrived and the conductor noticed that an African American was in the white's only section. The conductor ordered Plessy to leave, but he refused, replying that he was only a 1/8th black. The conductor called the police and poor Plessy was immediately arrested.

Plessy was found guilty but he didn't have to spend 20 days in prison. He only spent one night in the cold concrete and steel prison, and released the next morning on bond. To be released on bond means that you pay the court a certain amount of money to ensure that a person appears in court as many times as required. Then later he had to show up at a trial to fight for his right, either to be free or to be found guilty once more and serve time. "Plessy went to court and argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution." ([|//http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/USA/PlessyFerguson.html//] ) A man named Justice John Harland understood the case and the rights/wrongs. Harland supported Plessy and he wrote a speech to help Ferguson understand the situation and that Plessy was innocent. "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law...In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case...The present decision, it may well be apprehended, will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of state enactments, to adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution." ([|//http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/USA/PlessyFerguson.html//] )

Sadly Plessy didn't win the case. He was found guilty before and after his trial. Since Plessy didn't win the case, he was thrown in prison to serve time. It wasn't till 1896 that the "separate but equal" laws were passed. In January 1897, after he served cold years behind bars, he pled guilty and paid the fine. Plessy became an insurance agent and died in his early sixties on March 1, 1925. He got to feel what it was like and to live free.


 * Citations/Links**:

1. [|www.thenagain.info]/WebChron/USA/PlessyFerguson.html//

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