Homer Plessy

1862 - 1925  (62 years)

• Name	Homer Plessy
  Born	17 Mar 1862	New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA
  Gender	Male
  Died	1 Mar 1925	Metaire, Jefferson Parish, LA
  Buried	St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA
  Person ID	I6447	adkinshorton
  Last Modified	20 Jun 2016

  
  

  Father	Joseph Adolph Plessy
  Mother	Rosa de Bergue
  Family ID	F79	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Louise Bordenave,   b. Abt 1869, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA
  Married	1888	New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA
  Last Modified	18 Jun 2016
  Family ID	F81	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  7 Jun 1892 "[Homer] Plessy bought a first-class ticket on a train from New Orleans and sat in the car for white riders only. The [Citizens' Committee of New Orleans] had hired a private detective with arrest powers to take Plessy off the train at Press and Royal streets, to ensure that he was charged with violating the state's separate-car law and not some other misdemeanor." Note: "The Committee...recruited Plessy to deliberately violate Louisiana's 1890 separate-car law. To pose a clear test, the Citizens' Committee gave notice of Plessy's intent to the railroad, which opposed the law because it required adding more cars to its trains." On appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the decision went against Plessy, resulting in "separate but equal" discrimination by states. This was at a time when Louisiana was being occupied by federal troops due to the American Civil War and Reconstruction; which had liberated blacks. Withdrawal of federal troops effectively reversed some of the freedoms granted. The "Separate but Equal" ruling was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954. 10 Feb 2009 The Plessy & Ferguson Foundation of New Orleans placed a historical marker at the corner of Press and Royal streets, where the arrest had taken place some 117 years earlier. Historical Marker Photos By Skywriter - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 FRONT BACK Above adapted from the Wikipedia article.