Plessy v Ferguson

On June 7th, 1892 a man named Homer Plessy who is considered to be 1/8 African American and 7/8 Caucasian has lived his life as a white man his whole life and never faced any trouble because he has a light skin color. He bought a first class train ticket like he normally would and while he was seated, he was told to leave that train and sit with the colored people unless he would get fined 25$.

The state of Louisianas train companies must have "equal but separate" train carts for black and white passengers. The case challenged Louisianas Separate Car Act(1890) because it was such a difficult case to argue on both sides of the argument because he has some African American in him but he is mostly Caucasian and looks white too. Ferguson made the case that Plessy should be prosecuted because he was totally aware of a law that he broke which is not right under our constitution. Plessy's punishment violated the 14th amendment because the equal protection clause stated that no state should have any laws that take away any person rights. Plessy had to pay the fine because the states ruling won the overall decision.