Jump to content

Plessy v. Ferguson: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[pending revision][pending revision]
Content deleted Content added
Ale jrb (talk | contribs)
m Reverted edits by Ale jrb (talk) to last version by ClueBot
No edit summary
Line 31: Line 31:
== Background ==
== Background ==


After the [[American Civil War]] in 1865, during the period known as [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], the government was able to provide some protection for the civil rights of the newly-freed slaves. But when Reconstruction ended with the [[Compromise of 1877]] and federal troops were withdrawn, southern state governments began passing [[Jim Crow laws]] that prohibited blacks from using the same public accommodations as whites.
After the [[American Civil War]] in 1865, during the period known as [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], the government was able to provide some protection for the civil rights of the newly-freed slaves. But when Reconstruction ended with the [[Compromise of 1877]] and federal troops were withdrawn, southern state governments began passing [[Jim Crow laws]] that prohibited blacks from using winnie the pooh as an excuse to no clean their room.


The [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] served to abolish [[slavery]] and [[involuntary servitude]], except as a punishment for crime. Under the meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment, the term "slavery" implies involuntary servitude or a state of bondage and the ownership of human beings as property. That term implies the control of the labor and services of one person for the benefit of another and the absence of a legal rights regarding the disposal of one's own person, property and services. According to the [[Slaughterhouse Cases]], the Thirteenth Amendment was intended primarily to abolish slavery as it had been previously known in the United States at the time, and that it equally forbade involuntary servitude. It was intimated, however, in that case that the Amendment was regarded at the time as insufficient to protect former slaves from certain laws which had been enacted in the Southern States, imposing upon them onerous disabilities and burdens and curtailing their rights in the pursuit of life, liberty and property to such an extent that their freedom was of little value. The Fourteenth Amendment was devised to meet this exigency.
The [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] served to abolish [[slavery]] and [[involuntary servitude]], except as a punishment for crime. Under the meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment, the term "slavery" implies involuntary servitude or a state of bondage and the ownership of human beings as property. That term implies the control of the labor and services of one person for the benefit of another and the absence of a legal rights regarding the disposal of one's own person, property and services. According to the [[Slaughterhouse Cases]], the Thirteenth Amendment was intended primarily to abolish slavery as it had been previously known in the United States at the time, and that it equally forbade involuntary servitude. It was intimated, however, in that case that the Amendment was regarded at the time as insufficient to protect former slaves from certain laws which had been enacted in the Southern States, imposing upon them onerous disabilities and burdens and curtailing their rights in the pursuit of life, liberty and property to such an extent that their freedom was of little value. The Fourteenth Amendment was devised to meet this exigency.

Revision as of 23:22, 3 December 2009

Plessy v. Ferguson
Argued April 13, 1896
Decided May 18, 1896
Full case nameHomer A. Plessy v. Ferguson
Citations163 U.S. 537 (more)
16 S. Ct. 1138; 41 L. Ed. 256; 1896 U.S. LEXIS 3390
Case history
PriorEx parte Plessy, 11 So. 948 (La. 1892)
SubsequentNone
Holding
The "separate but equal" provision of public accommodations by state governments is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Melville Fuller
Associate Justices
Stephen J. Field · John M. Harlan
Horace Gray · David J. Brewer
Henry B. Brown · George Shiras Jr.
Edward D. White · Rufus W. Peckham
Case opinions
MajorityBrown, joined by Fuller, Field, Gray, Shiras, White, Peckham
DissentHarlan
Brewer took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV; 1890 La. Acts 152
Overruled by
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation even in public accommodations (particularly railroads), under the doctrine of "separate but equal".

The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1 (Justice David Josiah Brewer did not participate in the decision), with the majority opinion written by Justice Henry Billings Brown and the dissent written by Justice John Marshall Harlan. "Separate but equal" remained standard doctrine in U.S. law until its repudiation in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education.

After the high court ruled, the New Orleans Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) that had brought the suit and that had arranged for Homer Plessy's arrest in order to challenge Louisiana's segregation law, replied, “We, as freemen, still believe that we were right and our cause is sacred.”[1]

Background

After the American Civil War in 1865, during the period known as Reconstruction, the government was able to provide some protection for the civil rights of the newly-freed slaves. But when Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877 and federal troops were withdrawn, southern state governments began passing Jim Crow laws that prohibited blacks from using winnie the pooh as an excuse to no clean their room.

The Thirteenth Amendment served to abolish slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime. Under the meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment, the term "slavery" implies involuntary servitude or a state of bondage and the ownership of human beings as property. That term implies the control of the labor and services of one person for the benefit of another and the absence of a legal rights regarding the disposal of one's own person, property and services. According to the Slaughterhouse Cases, the Thirteenth Amendment was intended primarily to abolish slavery as it had been previously known in the United States at the time, and that it equally forbade involuntary servitude. It was intimated, however, in that case that the Amendment was regarded at the time as insufficient to protect former slaves from certain laws which had been enacted in the Southern States, imposing upon them onerous disabilities and burdens and curtailing their rights in the pursuit of life, liberty and property to such an extent that their freedom was of little value. The Fourteenth Amendment was devised to meet this exigency.

The Supreme Court had ruled, in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), that the Fourteenth Amendment applied only to the actions of government, not to those of private individuals, and consequently did not protect persons against individuals or private entities who violated their civil rights. In particular, the Court invalidated most of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, a law passed by the United States Congress to protect blacks from private acts of discrimination.

In 1890, the State of Louisiana passed Act 111 that required separate accommodations for African Americans and Whites on railroads, including separate railway cars, though it specified that the accommodations must be kept "equal". Concerned, several African Americans (including Louisiana's former governor P.B.S. Pinchback) and Whites in New Orleans formed an association, the Citizens' Committee to Test the Separate Car Act, dedicated to the repeal of that law. They raised $1412.70 ($33852.48 in 2008 USD) which they offered to the then-famous author and Radical Republican jurist, Albion W. Tourgée, to serve as lead counsel for their test case. Tourgée agreed to do it for free. Later, they enlisted Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth black (an octoroon in the now-antiquated parlance), to take part in an act of planned civil disobedience. The plan was for Plessy to be thrown off the railway car and arrested[2] not for vagrancy, which would not have led to a challenge that could reach the Supreme Court, but for violating the Separate Car Act, which could and did lead to a challenge with the high court.

The Committee hired a detective to ensure that Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act, which the Citizen's Committee wanted to challenge with the goal of having it overturned. They chose Plessy because, with his light skin color, he could buy a first class train ticket and, at the same time, be arrested when he announced, while sitting on board the train, that he had an African-American ancestor. For the Committee, this was a deliberate attempt to exploit the lack of clear racial definition in either science or law so as to argue that segregation by race was an "unreasonable" use of state power.

The intellectual roots of Plessy v. Ferguson were in part tied to the scientific racism of the era. However, the popular support for the decision was more likely a result of the racist beliefs held by most whites at the time.[3]

The case

File:Plessy marker.jpg
Marker placed at Press and Royal Streets on February 12, 2009 commemorating the planned arrest of Homer Plessy June 7, 1892 for violating the Louisiana 1890 Separate Car Act.

On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated for use by white patrons only. Although Plessy was born a free person and was one-eighth black and seven-eighths white, under a Louisiana law enacted in 1890, he was classified as Black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car. When, in an act of planned disobedience, Plessy refused to leave the white car and move to the colored car, he was arrested and jailed.

This was an act of civil disobedience carried out by the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) made up of the educated Free People of Color in New Orleans. Committee members were Arthur Esteves, C.C. Antoine, Firmin Chrisophe, C.G. Johnston, Paul Bonseigneur, Laurent Auguste, Rudolph B. Baquie, Rudolphe L. Desdunes, Louis A. Martinet, Numa E. Mansion, L.J. Joubert, Frank Hall, Noel Bachus, George Geddes and A.E. P. Albert

In his case, Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana, Plessy argued that the East Louisiana Railroad had denied him his rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. However, the judge presiding over his case, John Howard Ferguson, ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies as long as they operated within state boundaries. Plessy sought a writ of prohibition.

The Committee of Citizens took Plessy's appeal to the Supreme Court of Louisiana where he again found an unreceptive ear, as the state Supreme Court upheld Judge Ferguson's ruling. Undaunted, the Committee appealed to the United States Supreme Court in 1896. Two legal briefs were submitted on Plessy's behalf. One was signed by Albion W. Tourgée and James C. Walker and the other by Samuel F. Phillips and his legal partner F. D. McKenney. Oral arguments were held before the Supreme Court on April 13, 1896. Tourgée and Phillips appeared in the courtroom to speak on behalf of Plessy. It would become one of the most famous decisions in American history because, for the first time, it established that racial segregation was protected by federal law.

The decision

In a 7 to 1 decision in which Justice David Josiah Brewer did not participate,[4] the Court rejected Plessy's arguments based on the Fourteenth Amendment, seeing no way in which the Louisiana statute violated it. In addition, the majority of the Court rejected the view that the Louisiana law implied any inferiority of blacks, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Instead, it contended that the law separated the two races as a matter of public policy.

When summarizing, Justice Brown declared, "We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it."

While the Court did not find a difference in quality between the whites-only and blacks-only railway cars, this was manifestly untrue in the case of most other separate facilities, such as public toilets and cafés, where the facilities designated for blacks were poorer than those designated for whites. [citation needed]

Justice John Marshall Harlan, a former slave owner who decried the excesses of the Ku Klux Klan, wrote a scathing dissent in which he predicted the court's decision would become as infamous as that in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Harlan went on to say:

But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. 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.

New Orleans historian Keith Weldon Medley, author of We As Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson, The Fight Against Legal Segregation, said the words in Justice Harlan's "Great Dissent" originated with papers filed with the court by "The Citizen’s Committee".[5]

The case helped cement the legal foundation for the doctrine of separate but equal, the idea that segregation based on classifications was legal as long as facilities were of equal quality. However, Southern state governments refused to provide blacks with genuinely equal facilities and resources in the years after the Plessy decision. The states not only separated races but, in actuality, ensured differences in quality.[citation needed] In January 1897, Homer Plessy pled guilty to the violation and paid the fine.

Influence of Plessy v. Ferguson

Plessy legitimized the move towards segregation practices begun earlier in the South. Along with Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise address, delivered the previous year, which accepted black social isolation from white society, Plessy provided an impetus for further segregation laws. In the ensuing decades, segregation statutes proliferated, reaching even to the federal government in Washington, D.C., which re-segregated during Woodrow Wilson's administration in the 1910s.

William Rehnquist wrote a memo called "A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases" when he was a law clerk in 1952, during early deliberations that led to the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In his memo, Rehnquist argued that "I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated by 'liberal' colleagues but I think Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be reaffirmed." He continued, "To the argument… that a majority may not deprive a minority of its constitutional right, the answer must be made that while this is sound in theory, in the long run it is the majority who will determine what the constitutional rights of the minority are."[6][7]

Plessy and Ferguson Foundation

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, descendants of the players on both sides of the Supreme Court case, have announced the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation for Education and Reconciliation. The foundation will work to create new ways to teach the history of civil rights through film, art, and public programs designed to create understanding of this historic case and its effect on the American conscience.[8]

"It is no longer Plessy v Ferguson. It is Plessy and Ferguson," said Keith Plessy in a Public Broadcasting radio interview[2] with WWNO in New Orleans on February 12, 2009, the day that historians gathered with the Plessy and Ferguson families and a member of the Louisiana Supreme Court to unveil a historical marker recalling the case, according to an article in The Times-Picayune[9]

The marker was placed on the corner of Press and Royal Streets, marking the spot in 1892 where Homer Plessy was, in an act of planned civil disobedience, thrown off the railway car and arrested.[2]

Documentary film

The documentary film, Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans chronicles the history and little known details of the case, Plessy v. Ferguson. The award-winning film is scheduled to be shown on PBS stations in the U.S. in late summer 2009.

See also

References

  1. ^ Medley, Keith Weldon (2003). We As Freeman: Plessy v. Ferguson: The Fight Against Legal Segregation (PDF). Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1589801202.
  2. ^ a b c Eve Abrams (2009-02-12). "Plessy/Ferguson plaque dedicated".
  3. ^ Sarat, Austin (1997). Race, Law, and Culture: Reflections on Brown v. Board of Education. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0195106210. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) (full text in one web page)
  5. ^ "Civil rights pioneer celebrated with marker" (Flash). 2009-02-10.
  6. ^ Sunstein, Cass R. (2004-05-17). "From Law Clerk to Chief Justice, He Has Slighted Rights, Rehnquist's 1952 memo sheds light on today's court". Los Angeles Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ Canellos, Peter S. (2005-08-23). "Memos may not hold Roberts's opinions". Boston Globe. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ "A Celebration of Progress: Unveiling the long-awaited historical marker for the arrest site of Homer Plessy".
  9. ^ Katy Reckdahl (2009-02-11). "Plessy and Ferguson unveil plaque today marking their ancestors' actions". The Times-Picayune.

Further reading

  • Brook, Thomas (1997). Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Chin, Gabriel J. (1996). "The Plessy Myth: Justice Harlan and the Chinese Cases". Iowa Law Review. 82: 151. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  • Elliott, Mark (2006). Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195181395. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Fireside, Harvey (2004). Separate and Unequal: Homer Plessy and the Supreme Court Decision That Legalized Racism. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0786712937. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Lofgren, Charles A. (1987). The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation.. New York: Oxford University Press. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Medley, Keith Weldon (2003). We As Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson. Gretna, LA: Pelican. ISBN 1589801202. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) Review
  • Tushnet, Mark (2008). I dissent: Great Opposing Opinions in Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 69–80. ISBN 9780807000366. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)