Separate but Equal: Political Effects of Plessy v. Ferguson by Michelle Onibokun AFRI--1620: Black NOLA Research Seminar

Homère Plessy’s Train Ticket Setting the Scene June 7, 1892 Homère Plessy’s Train Ticket

Race Relations prior to 1890 Relatively amiable Entwined social lives Integrated transportation Prevalence of black voters

Changing Tides - 1890 Legislative Code 111 Separate Car Act American Citizens’ Equal Rights Association “Citizenship is National, and has no color.” Governor Francis Nicholls

Activism The Daily Crusader (1890) Comité des Citoyens (September 1, 1891) Rodolphe Desdunes Arthur Estèves

Activism The Daily Crusader (1890) Comité des Citoyens (September 1, 1891) Daniel Desdunes

Plessy Meets Ferguson November 18, 1892 “Equal but separate” “Judges have nothing to do with policy of particular acts passed by the legislature”

Supreme Ruling (May 18, 1896) “[The Amendment] 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.” Justice Brown, majority opinion Plessy decision Albion Tourgée Justice Brown

Justice Harlan, dissenting opinion The Lone Dissenter “…inconsistent not only with that equality of rights which pertains to citizenship, National and State, but with the personal liberty enjoyed by everyone within the United States.” Justice Harlan, dissenting opinion

The formalization of a racial caste system Political Effects The formalization of a racial caste system

Democratic Convention and the Assault on Voting Rights (February 1898) “[We are dedicated to purging] the mass of corrupt and illiterate voters who have during the last quarter of a century degraded our politics.” (Ernest Kruttschnitt, leading figure at Constitutional Convention) “[This Constitution is] utterly and irrevocably antagonistic to the immutable laws of justice and equity.” (Populist B.W. Bailey, one of only two men at the convention to vote against the changes to the Constitution)

The Schools Re-segregation of Schools in 1877 Conditions progressively worsen for Black schools from 1877-1900 Teaching staff doubled, teachers’ salaries were doubled, and curriculum reorganized at white schools Any publicly-funded schools past the fifth grade for Blacks were closed Ernest Kruttschnitt Warren Easton

Reverend Henderson Dunn Community Activism Concerned with: Overcrowding Poor facilities The lack of high schools and night schools Reverend Henderson Dunn Dr. Joseph Hardin

Race Riots (1900) At least six African Americans lynched Many more assaulted by white mobs The Lafon School torched The Lafon School

Transportation and the Wilson Bill Re-segregation of streetcars (1902) that were previously integrated (1867) Minimally Successful Boycott Pearson v. State (1903)

The Expansion of Jim Crow Interracial marriage (Gauthreaux Law – 1896) Water fountains (1908) City Ordinance Number 4118 (Moral Law - 1917)

Disbanded but not Defeated “We, as freemen, still believe that we were right and our cause is sacred.” Citizen’s Committee (1896)

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