10/18/16 • October 18, 2016 • AIM # 16 –What • R.A.W happened in the Plessy v –What was Ferguson the Great Supreme Betrayal? Court Case? • In 1890 Louisiana passed the • The arrest of Plessy was planned “Separate Car Act.” It said • *Citizens Committee to Test the that railroad companies must Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act* have separate but equal train • The East Louisiana Railroad cars for Whites & African Company Americans • The Committee appointed Albion • Passengers had to sit Tourgee as their lawyer segregated • Homer Plessy, only 1/8 African American, he looked white 1 10/18/16 • June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a • Judge John Howard Ferguson ticket from New Orleans to decided that the Separate Car Covington Louisiana Act was constitutional for trains • He sat in the car designated for running within state boarders white people, refused to move • Plessy found guilty for refusing • The conductor arrested Plessy & to leave a white car charged him with violating the Separate Car Act • Tourgee argued that Plessy was • 8 out of 9 Justices found Plessy guilty denied equal protection under • They said: the 14th Amendment & the ruling – 13th Amendment distinguishes violated the 13th Amendment by between political & social equality and African Americans & whites were perpetuating features of slavery politically equal but socially unequal • The case was appealed to the because whites were more socially state court in 1893- found guilty advanced then African Americans – 14th Amendment was not violated • Appealed to the Supreme Court because whites can’t sit in the cars in 1896 marked for African Americans 2 10/18/16 • This decision served as the legal justification for racial segregation for over the next 60 years 3.