Louisiana board votes to pardon Homer Plessy, namesake of Supreme Court's 1896 "separate but equal"

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

A Louisiana board on Friday voted to pardon Homer Plessy, the namesake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1896 "separate but equal" ruling affirming state segregation laws. The state Board of Pardon's unanimous decision to clear the Creole man's record of a conviction for refusing to leave a whites-only train car in New Orleans now goes to Governor John Bel Edwards, who has final say over the pardon.

Plessy was arrested in 1892 after boarding the train car as part of a civil rights' group's efforts to challenge a state law that mandated segregated seating. The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that state racial segregation laws didn't violate the Constitution as long as the facilities for the races were of equal quality. Plessy pleaded guilty to violating the Separate Car Act a year later and was fined $25. He died in 1925 with the conviction still on his record.

Descendants of Plessy and John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw his case in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, became friends decades later and formed a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights education. Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson told CBS News earlier this year they hope to create change by telling the truth about history and helping people understand the meaning of legacy.

"I think it's our responsibility, that's how we look at it," Ferguson said. "We want people to understand what legacy is, and not to wait until the end of your life to understand legacy, but to understand legacy at an early age."


Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, descendants of the principals in the Plessy v. Ferguson court case, pose for a photograph in front of a historical marker in New Orleans, on June 7, 2011. Bill Haber / AP

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homer-plessy-pardon-supreme-court-plessy-ferguson/

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Heard this on the radio today.


Homer Plessy



Those wheels of justice...

[11 Bravo]

1. And now Johnny "Apple Cheeks" Robert gets to say once again:

"See, racism is OVER!"

I'm pleased that this wrong was, if not righted, at least expunged.

I'm not pleased at how I believe racist white assholes may manipulate this decision.

[robbob]

6. Funny, when I saw the 25$ fine, I was thinking

these days some non-white person violating an unjust law would probably get hard prison time. See: recent conviction of an ex-con who thought he was allowed to vote.

[Cryptoad]

2. Wellll, that proves it

they said there were no racist bigots in LA,,,!

[Mawspam2]

3. But, but, Critical Race Theory!! We can't teach...

...this stuff to out delicate white childrenz!!! Slavery, segregation, Japanese internment camps, THEY NEVER HAPPENED!!!!!

[Descendants of Plessy and John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw his case in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, became friends decades later and formed a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights education.]

[cannabis_flower]

4. The picture made me want to know more about Homer Plessy

Interesting article about the Homer Plessy and other creole civil rights advocates.

The most famous civil rights plaintiff of them all, Homer Plessy, who challenged railcar segregation at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896, was described in the African American New Orleans Crusader newspaper as being “as white as the average white Southerner.” To launch his case, he had had to out himself to the train conductor as mixed-race to get ejected from the whites-only car. Plessy’s ethnic background was estimated to be seven-eighths European and one-eighth African but it was impossible to pin down for sure. That was the whole point. As Plessy’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court justices, “Is not the question of race … very often impossible of determination?” Plessy’s case was an attempt to resist not merely segregation but binary racial labels like “white” and “colored” altogether.

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/03/08/homer-plessy-reconstruction-era-racism/ideas/essay/

[oasis]

5. A person of enormous courage gets proper Justice. Bravo!