User:Bluemarie0428/Sandbox

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Memorial dedicated to the infamous Plessy versus Ferguson court case

In 1890 the state of Louisiana passed an act that legalized separate passenger railcars, based on race, as long as they possessed equal accommodations. The Citizens Committee to Test the Separate Cars Act, an early Civil Rights group, formed and enlisted Mr. Homer Plessy, who was of mixed race, to help them in challenging the LA Act.

On June 7, 1892 Plessy boarded an all whites railcar in New Orleans and was quickly arrested on charges of civil disobedience. Plessy and his supporters argued in court that the Louisiana Act violated his rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment’s. After Judge Ferguson ruled against Plessy, the case went on to the LA Supreme Court, where they were again ruled against, and finally to the United States Supreme Court in 1896.

In a 7-1 vote (the ninth judge did not vote), the infamous separate but equal doctrine, which legalized segregation in every area of public life, was established under the Plessy versus Ferguson ruling. The demeaning precedent remained intact until 1954, when the famous Brown versus Board of Education, ruled that separate facilities were innately unequal and therefore illegal.

A modest plaque, located on the corner of Press Street and Royal Street just outside of the French Quarter, stands as a memorial to Homer Plessy in the place where he boarded the all whites railcar. It is located in an abandoned park, across the street from the rail-line, that was once the life blood of the city, and a row of empty, graffiti covered warehouses.

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