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Preservation in Print

Homer Adolph Plessy & His Mission

By Keith Weldon Medley
March 3, 2018

This story first appeared in the March issue of the PRC’s Preservation in Print magazine. Interested in getting more preservation stories like this delivered to your door each month? Become a member of the PRC for a subscription!

Plessy V. Ferguson is arguably Louisiana’s most famous Supreme Court Case. It involved a group of men who sought to challenge Louisiana’s pas­sage of a law that separated blacks and whites on railroad trains. This group of writers, businessmen, educators, lawyers and a newspaper publisher con­structed a well-planned legal and civil disobedience campaign to have the law overturned in the courts of the land and also in the court of public opinion.

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It was in 1890 that the legislature passed a mean-spirited law that seg­regated people on railroad trains. In the case of interracial couples, the law physically separated husbands, wives and children. The law also mandated that railroad companies provide an additional coach even if only a few black passengers purchased tickets. For Louisiana legislators of African heritage (there were 18 black members of the legislature at the time), the law prohib­ited them from traveling with their fellow government officials and many of their constituents.

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The newly formed Comité des Citoyens and their allies filled the autumn and winter of 1891 with urgent appeals. They turned to the tightly knit net­works of benevolent and religious societies, labor clubs, lodges and church groups in 1890s New Orleans as their core constituency. Individuals walked the streets with subscription lists, asking their friends and neighbors to con­tribute. Supporters sponsored concerts and wrote letters. ... In their appeal, the Comité des Citoyens asked for financial support “where­by the coins of the poor may equal in merit the liberality of the rich.” ... In the short three months after An Appeal was published, nearly $3,000 rolled in from the neighborhoods of New Orleans and in cities as far away as Chicago and San Francisco. In total, over 150 donors contributed to the effort. In 1892, it was time to act.

For Homer Plessy, the law meant that, after years of relative freedom, he was being denied the opportunity to ride in the same car as his next-door neighbor. When the committee sought volunteers, Homer stepped forward. Plessy was more than an accidental activist. Indeed, his arrest and court battle was part of a meticulously planned scenario whereby Homer Plessy would obtain a ticket, board the East Louisiana Railroad on Press Street, and be arrested and booked. ... Plessy had four tasks: get the ticket, get on the train, get arrested, and get booked. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy traveled the nearly two miles from his residence in the Tremé neighborhood to the train station on Press Street, about two miles away. He purchased a first class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad number eight train that was scheduled to depart at 4:15 p.m. for a two-hour run to Covington, LA. As boarding time neared, Homer walked toward the first class coach ignoring the cars with the ‘Colored Only’ desig­nations. He likewise disregarded the prominently posted ‘Separate Car Act’ signs, and took a seat in the first class accommodation. The whistle blew, the doors shut, the steam blasted from the engine and the East Louisiana train’s wheels creaked forward. As the train inched away, Conductor J. J. Dowling collected tickets. He paused when he got to Plessy; Then, the question:

“Are you a colored man?”

“Yes,” said Homer Plessy.

“Then you will have to retire to the colored car,” Dowling responded.

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