Hi, I'm Clint Smith, and this is Crash Course Black American History. So far, we’ve talked
about a few different legal cases, and there will be even more to discuss as we move forward.
That’s because throughout US history, the law has been used both to fight against the oppression of
Black people, but also has been used as a way to perpetuate that oppression. And in 19th century
America there was a whole lot of the latter. Counter to what you may have been told, the law
is not colorblind, it is not neutral. Many laws and court rulings were not enacted in “objective”
ways, but in ways that were specifically and intentionally designed to maintain Black Americans
as second-class citizens, that is, if they were going to even be considered citizens at all.
Today, we’re going to look at a landmark case in the Supreme Court, that, in 1896,
codified and formalized racial segregation; the case was Plessy v Ferguson, and its consequences
would have a decades-long impact on the social fabric of American life. Let's start the show.
Plessy vs Ferguson determined that Black Americans could be kept separate from White
Americans in public spaces and facilities, under the premise (the false premise) that
those facilities were actually equal. It legalized segregation and legitimated
the racist laws that former Confederates had passed in many of the southern states.
At the center of the case was Homer Plessy, a shoemaker born around the time of the Civil War
in New Orleans, Louisiana. And what many people don’t know about Plessy, is that,
technically, he was only ⅛ Black. If you saw him in the street -- or on a train -- you might be
surprised to know he was considered a Black man. This is how race began to function in the United
States, what people referred to as, “the one-drop rule”, the idea being that if you had “one-drop”
of African blood, you were considered Black. (It’s important to note here though, that there
is no such thing as “Black blood” or “white blood” or blood of any color other than red.
Race, you always have to remember, is a social construct. It was made up!
And it was made up specifically to create and maintain the artificial demarcations of power,
the power that allowed someone to enforce absurd laws like these). But, I digress.
Anyway, there were many mixed race people like Plessy in New Orleans. And there still are,
I should know, I’m from there. Louisiana at this time, was a
state that was very different from the others in that it was thoroughly multiracial. Due to the
multiple groups of colonists that settled in that region from a wide variety of different nations,
it was not uncommon for individuals to be racially mixed with French, English,
Spanish, Black, and Native American. In addition to that, early 19th
century New Orleans also had a large free Black population, many of whom
were professionals. And they were able to integrate into society relatively well - they
could choose the schools they wanted to go to, marry who they chose, and almost live a life that,
on the surface, made it seem like free Black people were as free as any white person.
But this wouldn’t last, and the government made it a priority to put Black Americans
in their place. As a result, Black people, as they have for centuries,
resorted to activism to attempt to build the sort of society they deserved to live in. And Homer
Plessy was involved in that activism directly. Plessy was the Vice-President of the Justice,
Protective, Educational, and Social Club. Their goal was to improve the
New Orleans public education system. And even though New Orleans was,
traditionally, relatively integrated, not long after the end of Reconstruction,
White supremacy started to rear its ugly head. A new law called “the Separate Car Act of 1890”
was passed in Louisiana and segregated railroad cars by race. But the Black activist community
in New Orleans refused to let an act like that go unchallenged. Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
Pulling from activism tactics that had been used in other Southern cities,
local activists of color called the Committee of Citizens started to organize a protest against
this law. They hoped to use it as a test-case in the court system against what they saw
as an explicitly unjust law. This wasn’t a random act of civil disobedience,
this was a well orchestrated plan. The railroad company was made aware of Plessy’s race prior to
him showing up to the station. The Committee of Citizens even hired a private detective
who had the power to arrest him specifically for violating the Separate Car Act and not some
other law. This way they could make sure they were challenging that specific law in court.
The plan was for Plessy to sit down in the “Whites Only” section of the train,
and for the detective to arrest, detain, and charge him. And that’s what happened.
So in 1892, Plessy boarded a “Whites Only” car on the East Louisiana Railroad. When the
conductor approached him and asked him about his race, he explained that he was 1/8 black,
and refused to move to the “Colored Only” section. The aforementioned detective, then
removed Plessy from the train and arrested him. This was all according to the Committee
of Citizens’ plan and they were there ready to bail him out. Plessy
had done his job. The next step was for them to challenge the Separate Car Act of 1890 in court.
Thanks, Thought Bubble. Plessy was ultimately charged for
the crime of sitting in a “Whites Only'' car. That decision was upheld in the state court,
but the legal question made its way to the Supreme Court. And this was a really, really big deal!
The case’s appeal to the Supreme Court showed how seriously the Committee of
Citizens took this issue because they pushed for the appeal. And most importantly just like today,
when cases go to the Supreme Court, it's because the court believes that there is
something important for them to say about the issue. They want to make a national statement,
and possibly set a new precedent...and boy did they ever.
Plessy’s lawyers argued that the Louisiana segregation law violated his 13th and 14th
Amendment rights. You might remember them as two of the Reconstruction Amendments,
which were passed after the Civil War to enfranchise Black Americans.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and, for the sake of this argument,
the state-sponsored subjugation of Black Americans. And the 14th Amendment gave Black
Americans citizenship rights and equal protection. Plessy’s lawyers also argued that The Separate Car
Act in Louisiana reinforced the false idea that White Americans were superior to Black Americans.
Well, the Supreme Court rejected all of these arguments. Basically they argued: the legal
question about whether the Louisiana law promoted Black American inferiority wasn’t relevant.
And infamously, the Supreme Court also stated that separate facilities mandated by the law
were actually OK - as long as each race's facilities were “equal.”
Justice Henry Brown said in the opinion, “We consider the underlying fallacy of the
plaintiff’s argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races
stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason
of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction
upon it.” Hmmm…
On the other side, Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only one who dissented,
stating that on a functional level, “The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this
country” and that behavior is unconstitutional. He used the term colorblind to describe the
constitution, arguing that the rights in the Constitution apply to everyone.
The case was decided 7-1 in favor of Ferguson (the Louisiana state judge
who originally ruled against Plessy). The Plessy decision
legalized and codified what was already happening to Black Americans: segregation, humiliation,
and exclusion in everyday life. It’s sometimes considered to be the start of the Jim Crow era.
So when you watch those civil rights movies they show on MLK Day or look at the pictures
in your textbooks of “Whites Only” stores and water fountains, know that the United States
legal system protected white supremacy through segregation for almost 70 years.
In Plessy v Ferguson, the Supreme Court essentially said, it’s okay to keep Black
and white people in separate facilities because the act of simply separating them,
itself, doesn’t make their treatment unequal. But, practically, every member of the court
knew that wasn’t true. Everyone knew that Black
Americans weren’t provided with the resources to create equal spaces for themselves, and that the
facilities and accommodations that they were provided with, were often of lower quality
than their white counterparts. And that wasn’t by accident.
Part of the reason that many white people wanted to keep things separate in the first place,
was because they wanted a physical and social manifestation
of the inequality between Black and white people. And this is what Plessy v Ferguson provided.
The Supreme Court was given a test with Plessy v Ferguson, and it is a test that it failed.
And it is a profound reminder of the power the judicial system has had, and continues to have,
in shaping the landscape of American life. And while we must study, learn from,
and acknowledge the court’s failure, our country does not have to be defined by it. Moving forward,
we can make a different set of choices, enact different laws, and have different court rulings,
that center justice, equity, and opportunity for every single person in this country.
Thanks for watching, I’ll see you next time.