Rosa de Bergue

Rosa married Joseph Adolph Plessy. (son of Germaine Plessy and Catherine Mathieu) [Group Sheet]

Rosa married Victor Martial Dupart, Sr. on 3 May 1871 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA. Victor (son of Joseph Martial Dupart and Marie Josephine Olivella) was born on 22 Feb 1835 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA; died on 10 Feb 1897 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA. [Group Sheet]

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

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Above adapted from the Wikipedia article.

Homer married Louise Bordenave in 1888 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA. Louise was born about 1869 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA. [Group Sheet]