2. Segregation and
Discrimination After Reconstruction, southern governments passed laws that
restricted African Americans’ rights, but prejudice existed
nationwide.
Southern legislatures passed the Jim Crow Laws to create and
enforce segregation in public places.
One law requiring separate railway cars for African Americans
and whites was tested by Homer Plessy, an African American. His
case went to the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson. They
upheld segregation, saying “separate but equal” facilities didn’t
violate the Fourteenth Amendment.
The worst outcome of discrimination was lynching, or murder by
a mob. Nearly 900 African Americans were murdered between
1882 and 1892 by lynch mobs.
4. Plessy v. Ferguson
June 7, 1892, was jailed for
sitting in the “White” car of
the East Louisiana Railroad.
He was a Creole of Color
He was considered black
under Louisiana law
By Louisiana law, Separate
Car Act of 1892, he was
required to sit in the
“Colored” car.
5. A Black civil rights
organization
challenged the law.
Plessy deliberately sat in
the white section and
identified himself as
black
Lawyers, for Plessy,
argued that the
Separate Car Act
violated the 13th
and 14th
amendments
Case went to the
Supreme Court
6. •In 1896, the Supreme Court held the
Louisiana segregation statue constitutional.
•Speaking for the 7 man majority, Justice
Henry Brown wrote: “A statue which implies
merely legal distinction between the white
and colored races – has no tendency to
destroy the legal equality of the two races…
The object of the 14th
Amendment was
undoubtedly to enforce the absolute
equality of the two races before the law, but
in the nature of things it could not have been
intended to abolish distinctions based upon
color, or to enforce social, as distinguished
from political equality, or a commingling of
the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to
either.
Opinion of the Court
7. Dissenting Opinion
Justice John Harlan, the lone dissenter,
saw the horrific consequences of the
decision.
“Our Constitution is color-blind, and
neither knows nor tolerates classes among
citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens
are equal before the law… The present
decision, it may well be apprehended, will
not only stimulate aggressions, more or less
brutal and irritating, upon the admitted
rights of colored citizens, but will
encourage the belief that it is possible, by
means of state enactments, to defeat the
beneficent purposes which people of the
United States had in view when they
adopted the recent amendments of the
Constitution.”
8. “Separate but Equal”
Doctrine Set the precedent that
“separate” facilities for
blacks and whites were
constitutional as long as
they were “equal.”
Covered many areas of
public life, such as
restaurants, theaters,
restrooms, and public
schools.
10. Discussion Questions
Describe New Orleans society
during Reconstruction.
What were the facts and the
central issue of Plessy v. Ferguson?
What was the impact of Plessy v.
Ferguson on American society?
What happened to the civil liberties
of people of color after the verdict
in Plessy v. Ferguson?
