Homer Plessy’s Challenge
Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race from New Orleans, volunteered to work with civil rights groups to challenge Louisiana’s Separate Car Act. They believed the law was unjust (morally wrong or unfair), and they wanted to test its constitutionality. Plessy boarded a railroad car intended for whites only. When the conductor learned that he was black, he told him to move to the “blacks-only” car. When Plessy refused, he was arrested, tried, and convicted for violating the law.
His case, known as Plessy v. Ferguson, reached the US Supreme Court in 1896. The question in the case was whether Louisiana’s law violated the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed equal protection of the laws to all citizens. The Court ruled against Plessy, stating that laws segregating blacks and whites in public places did not violate the Constitution as long as the facilities were “separate but equal.” This meant that states could legally segregate the races.
The ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson paved the way for more segregation laws throughout the South. States, towns, and cities passed laws segregating virtually all areas of society. Commonly called Jim Crow laws, they forced blacks to use separate public schools, restrooms, theaters, restaurants, and hotels. If a black person tried to use a white water fountain or walkthrough the front door of a “whites only” restaurant, he or she could be arrested. States followed the “separate” part of the law while ignoring the “equal” part. They made laws that not only separated the races but emphasized white superiority. The facilities offered to blacks were almost always inferior to those for whites.
For the next 50 years, Georgians lived under Jim Crow laws. The General Assembly officially segregated electric streetcars, railroad coaches, trolleys, textile mills, and other facets of public life. The doctrine of “separate but equal” continued to decide racial discrimination cases until it was overturned by the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
