Homer Adolph Plessy was a mixed race. Seven eighth Caucasian and one eighth African American. He was accepted into a case that was to test the court's constitutionality. On June 7th, 1892, Plessy bought a train ticket, and sat down in a whites only car. When they asked him to move to the blacks-only car, Plessy refused, and at the conductor's request he was arrested and jailed.
On May 18th, 1896 the Supreme Court took on the case of Plessy vs Ferguson. In declaring separate-but-equal, the court stated that the 14th Amendment only applied to civil and political rights. The Supreme Court rejected Homer's arguments that his constitutional rights of the 14th Amendment for the equal protection was violated. It wasn't just the trains that were segregated, there were others like buses, hotels, theaters, swimming pools, and schools.
The Plessy vs Ferguson case, the doctrine "separate but equal" was just a constitutional justification for segregation ensuring the Jim Crow laws could still be apart of life for the next half a century.
It was just a terrible, horrible time in human history. How African Americans were still not considered equal, even when we fought against the Confederates in the Civil War. They just wouldn't change their minds. And it wasn't just former Confederates, it was average people like you and me. They just didn't see African Americans as people. AND it still. happens today! which boggles my mind. I mean come on! have some common sense. The light behind the shadows is that it's not as bad today as it was during the 1800s, there aren't separate train cars, or theaters, or swimming pools, etc.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/plessy-v-ferguson
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