By Bri Dickerson, Gillian Mendez, Kaitlyn Strada, & Stephanie Dellavia Plessy vs. Ferguson By Bri Dickerson, Gillian Mendez, Kaitlyn Strada, & Stephanie Dellavia

Background In 1890, the Louisiana legislature passed a law requiring railroads to separate passengers on the basis of race. A State fine of $25 or up to 20 days in jail was the penalty for sitting in the wrong compartment. Trains that had two or more passenger cars had to have chosen seating for different races.

About Homer Plessy Plessy was a businessman who lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Plessy was considered 1/8th African American because he had one African American grandfather. He still did not consider himself African American.

What happened? Plessy challenged the Jim Crow Laws (laws that legally segregated the races) and intentionally broke the laws while riding a railroad train by not sitting in the correct segregated area of the train. Plessy was asked by railroad officials to move. He refused and was arrested. Plessy protested the unfairness of the laws to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Ferguson was the judge then, but the court convicted him anyway.

The Constitution Plessy argued that the segregations of the train cars broke the 14th amendment of the constitution. 14th Amendment – (Equal Protection Clause) The Equal Protection Clause can be summarized by the proposal that “all men are created equally.”

Their Ideas Plessy believed that all men were created equally and having segregated train cars went against the fourteenth amendment. Ferguson believed that the fourteenth amendment wasn’t relevant to the case and that the laws were good the way they were. (segregating the races).

Final Decision The state of Louisiana came to an agreement and didn’t see how the 14th amendment was relevant. Plessy had lost his case and was immediately convicted and put into prison. The Plessy vs. Ferguson case made a huge impact on the world. The case created an awareness of racial inequality.

Our Decision We agree with Plessy in this case because he says that all men are created equally no matter what race they are. Unlike what Ferguson, Plessy’s idea was not based on the color of your skin or where you came from.

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