Separate but Equal

Each of the following situations offers separate accommodations for the people involved. Are those accommodations equal?

1. A black woman is thirsty, so she walks over to the water fountains. There is one fountain for blacks and one for whites. The black woman uses the fountain for whites because the other one is out of order.

2. A black man has been traveling for many hours. He stops at a diner to eat and use the restroom. This diner only serves whites. In order to eat, the black man must travel another two hours to another diner that serves blacks. The black man cannot wait two hours to use the restroom, so he uses the diner's restroom despite the posted signs.

3. A white man is not allowed to have his colored attendant with him in the same train coach even though the white man's health condition requires constant supervision. The colored attendant ignores the rules and sits beside his employer in the coach for white passengers.

Plessy v. Ferguson1896

Let’s take a step back in

time…

Separate-but-Equal

Pre-1850: Sarah Roberts

Sarah’s dad reaches out to Charles Sumner

• Lawyer

• Civil rights enthusiast

• Later U.S. Senator

• Represents Sarah to challenge unequal treatment

• From this legal conflict, the now infamous doctrine of “separate-but-equal” was born

Roberts v. The City of BostonSeparate-but-Equal

Sumner• Claimed that compelling black

children to attend separate schools was to effectively “brand a whole race with the stigma of inferiority and degradation.”

• Used the same constitutional position that was the heart of the plaintiff’s success over 100 years later in Brown v. Board of Education.

Chief Justice Shaw• Unconvinced by Sumner• In his opinion, set forth the

separate-but-equal doctrine• Thought all persons ought to

stand equal before law, but the equality implied that not all men and women were legally clothed with the same civil and political powers.

• Believed in equal consideration.

Let’s jump ahead to 1892!

Plessy v. the State of Louisiana

The Capstone of Segregation

Homer Plessy

• Louisiana shoemaker who lived in New Orleans

• One-eighth-black• Seven-eights-white

Separate Car Act

• Passed in 1890 by Louisiana legislature

• Stated that blacks and whites have separate railroad cars

• Compartments were equal in size and comfort, but blacks found the segregation damaging to their pride

June 7, 1892• 30-year-old Homer

Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad.

• When Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, legally segregating common carriers in 1892, a black civil rights organization decided to challenge the law in the courts

Plessy is arrested.

Judge Ferguson (center) and the rest of the jury

Plessy v. Ferguson1896

Verdict

• Plessy guilty of refusing to leave the white car because of the laws of Louisiana.

• Homer Plessy appealed to the Supreme Court of the state, but the Supreme Court upheld Ferguson's decision.

Re-trial

• In 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States heard Homer Plessy's case and found him guilty once again.

• Plessy was sentenced to 20 days in a state prison

After the Trial• justified many other actions by state and local governments to socially

separate blacks and whites.• Both the thirteenth and the fourteenth amendment were involved with

this trial.• enabled the expansion of “separate but equal” to pervade many aspects

of daily life for people in states throughout the South.• Schools, public facilities, restaurants, hotels, theaters, public

transportation, etc. adopted the “separate but equal” policy to segregate African Americans away from Whites and in most cases, make the best facilities inaccessible to them.

• Much controversy arose because of this decision.

After the Trial• justified many other actions by state and local governments to socially

separate blacks and whites.• Both the thirteenth and the fourteenth amendment were involved with

this trial.• enabled the expansion of “separate but equal” to pervade many aspects

of daily life for people in states throughout the South.• Schools, public facilities, restaurants, hotels, theaters, public

transportation, etc. adopted the “separate but equal” policy to segregate African Americans away from Whites and in most cases, make the best facilities inaccessible to them.

• Much controversy arose because of this decision.

• Homer Adolph Plessy lived an otherwise unremarkable life after losing his case multiple times. The case was overturned in 1954.

• He became an insurance agent and died in 1925 in his early sixties.

• He is buried in a cemetery in St. Louis.

Significance of Plessy v. Ferguson

Brown v. Board of Education62 years after Plessy v. Ferguson

• The Court agreed with plaintiff Brown that separate school systems were inherently unequal, and directed that the practice be ended with “all deliberate speed.”

What Can We Learn about Separate but Equal from the Sneetches?

Dr. Suess's "The Sneetches"