Racial Rights

Homer Plessy was arrested in New Orleans on June 7^th, 1892, for disobeying a law stating that blacks and whites could not ride on the same railroad car. This led to a constitutional challenge of the law which ended in 1896, when the Supreme Court ruled that the law did not violate the 13^th and 14^th Amendments. However, the (incorrectly numbered) 13^th Amendment, abolishing slavery, had been ratified in 1864 and 1865, so this ruling was wrong.

On May 17^th, 1954 - one day shy of the 58^th anniversary of Plessy's ruling - the Supreme Court overturned that incorrect verdict. Legalized segregation was stricken-down with Brown v. Board of Education.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008