Wednesday, June 12, 2013

'Plessy v. Ferguson': Who Was Plessy?

The Root

100 Amazing Facts About the Negro: Learn about the man whose case led to decades of legal segregation.

Editor's note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black-history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these "amazing facts" are an homage.
 
(The Root) -- Amazing Fact About the Negro No. 35: Who was the Plessy in the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case that established the separate-but-equal policy for separating the races?
'How many mysteries have begun with the line, "A man gets on a train … "? In our man's case, it happens to be true, and there is nothing mysterious about his plan. His name is Homer Plessy, a 30-year-old shoemaker in New Orleans, and on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 7, 1892, he executes it perfectly by walking up to the Press Street Depot, purchasing a first-class ticket on the 4:15 East Louisiana local and taking his seat on board. Nothing about Plessy stands out in the "whites only" car. Had he answered negatively, nothing might have. 
 

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