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Constitutional Law Keyed to Paulsen
Plessy v. Ferguson
Citation:
163 U.S. 537, 16 S. Ct. 1138, 41 L. Ed. 256 (1896)
InstructorMatthew Steinberg
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Facts
Homer Plessy was a Louisiana resident of mixed descent, being seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth African, with the colored blood not discernible in his appearance. On June 7, 1892, he purchased a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railway from New Orleans to Covington and took a seat in a coach designated for white passengers. The conductor, acting under Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890, ordered Plessy to vacate the white coach and move to the colored coach. When Plessy refused, he was forcibly ejected with the assistance of a police officer and imprisoned in the parish jail. He was subsequently charged with criminally violating the state segregation statute. Plessy challenged the law’s constitutionality, arguing it violated both the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.
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