Cold Open

It’s February 24th, 1892 at a bustling railway station in New Orleans, Louisiana

As a train lurches to a halt, the waiting white passengers eagerly climb into its first compartment. While they stream into the rail car, a group of Black passengers hangs back, unsure when and where to enter the train.

The state of Louisiana recently passed the Separate Car Act which requires white and non-white passengers to sit in different train coaches. Any passenger who refuses to sit in the coach assigned to them is liable to be fined or even imprisoned.

But today Daniel Desdunes is ready to defy the statute. Daniel is a volunteer for a local civil rights group called the Citizens’ Committee, which has orchestrated a test case to challenge the constitutionality of the Separate Car Act.

As the white passengers file into the train, so too does Daniel. A light-skinned man of mixed race, he’s forbidden from sitting in a whites-only compartment because he’s one-eighth Black. But he deliberately violates the Separate Car Act and takes a seat anyway. If everything goes to plan, Daniel will be arrested and the Citizens' Committee will be able to argue their case in court, giving them a chance to challenge the law’s legitimacy and the state’s authority to determine who qualifies as colored.

As Daniel sits down, his eyes nervously dart around the crowded compartment. It’s full of white men and women, but Daniel’s skin color is so fair that none of them raise any objection to his presence.

He begins to worry that the Committee’s plan will be ruined. But then, the train’s conductor enters the coach. Marching up to Daniel, he firmly orders him to sit in the coach for other races.

Whispers begin to ripple through the compartment as the other passengers watch the tense situation unfold. Daniel’s pulse quickens as he looks up to meet the conductor’s gaze. Shaking his head solemnly, he declares that he will not move from his seat.

Without hesitation, the conductor motions for a group of nearby police officers to enter the coach. Daniel draws a sharp breath as they surround his seat. But he keeps his gaze fixed firmly ahead, refusing to move until he’s placed under arrest.

After bailing out Daniel, the Citizens’ Committee will use his case to mount a legal challenge to the Separate Car Act. But their plan will fail. Since Daniel boarded an interstate train, the Louisiana Supreme Court will rule that the state’s Separate Car Act has no application anyway. Daniel will be acquitted without the court ever having to delve into the act’s legitimacy.

But just a few months later, another member of the Citizens’ Committee will board a train, determined to retry the experiment. But the group’s second attempt will have far more calamitous consequences, leading to a landmark Supreme Court decision that will legally sanctify the very discrimination they hoped to challenge on June 7th, 1892.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is June 7th, 1892: The Arrest of Homer Plessy.

Act One

It’s the afternoon of June 7th, 1892 at the Press Street Station in New Orleans; a few months after the arrest of Daniel Desdunes.

A large crowd gathers on the platform, waiting for the next train to roll in. Among them is a thirty-year-old mixed-race man tightly gripping his first-class ticket. As the train rolls into the station, Homer Plessy slowly makes his way through the crowd toward the whites-only coach, where he plans to stage the Citizens’ Committee’s latest act of defiance.

After the Louisiana Supreme Court acquitted Daniel Desdunes without evaluating the Separate Car Act, the Committee began looking for another way to test the law’s constitutionality. A member of the organization himself, Homer decided to offer his services. Like Daniel Desdunes, Homer is a light-skinned man of mixed descent and is one-eighth African American. This racial ambiguity makes him the perfect candidate to test the boundaries of the Separate Car Act.

So with Homer’s participation, the Committee has decided to run another test, but this time, the civil rights group has not left anything to chance. After Daniel’s arrest led to no changes or clarifications in legislation, the Committee is determined to get better results this time by making careful preparations to ensure Homer’s arrest will compel the court to address pressing questions about racial identification and the constitutionality of the Separate Car Act.

To guarantee that the law will be applicable to Homer’s future court case, the Committee has made sure that he boards an intrastate train headed to another Louisiana city. Then to make sure he gets arrested for violating the Separate Car Act rather than more general charges, the Committee has hired a private detective who is legally authorized to make arrests. So as Homer enters the train, the detective is already on board, with instructions to arrest the activist immediately after he is approached by the train’s conductor.

Also in on the plot is the East Louisiana Railroad — the company Homer will be traveling on. Their support was not difficult to gain. Because for the sake of their businesses, most railroad companies are not in favor of the Separate Car Act as it forces them to purchase extra coaches that are seldom used to their full capacity. But regardless of the reason behind their support, the Citizens’ Committee is thankful to have it. And with all these factors in their favor, the Committee is hopeful that Homer’s arrest will end more positively than Daniel’s.

After entering the whites-only coach, Homer finds a seat and settles down. As the train lurches into motion, he expectantly glances up at the compartment’s entrance. Homer’s gaze is soon met by the railroad conductor who is also complicit in the Committee’s ploy and plays his role perfectly.

The conductor strides up to Homer, and speaking in a low drawl, he asks if Homer is a colored man. Homer nods, telling the conductor that he is indeed a person of color. Conductor then promptly orders him to move to the coach assigned for colored races, but Homer refuses, and just a few moments later, the private detective hired by the Citizens’ Committee enters the compartment. Homer quietly listens as the detective recounts the language of the Separate Car Act. And when the detective commands him to sit in the coach assigned to colored persons, Homer refuses once again.

The detective takes this as his cue and exercises his powers to formally place Homer under arrest. The activist is escorted off the train to a police station where he is charged with violating the Separate Car Act.

Four months later, Homer's case will be heard in criminal court by Judge John Howard Ferguson who will uphold the law’s constitutionality. But Homer’s legal team will appeal the decision. And as his case is sent to the Louisiana Supreme Court, the Citizens’ Committee will remain cautiously optimistic. But their hopes of legislative change will be shattered after this court upholds Judge Ferguson’s decision, triggering a final appeal that will send Homer’s case all the way to Washington D.C. But there the case will fare no better when the Supreme Court will shock civil rights activists across the country and irreversibly alter the course of racial segregation in America.

Act Two

It’s May 18th, 1896 inside a small room tucked away in the recesses of the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington D.C.; nearly four years after Homer Plessy was arrested in New Orleans.

A group of eight white men dressed in thick black robes sit around a table littered with papers. Raised voices echo loudly across the room as the Supreme Court justices hotly debate the suit in which they are scheduled to deliver a judgment later today — the case of Homer Plessy v. Ferguson.

Homer’s criminal trial began in a Louisiana district court before Judge John Howard Ferguson. There, Homer’s lawyer argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery and provided for equal protection under the law. But Judge Ferguson was not convinced and he ruled that the state government was well within its rights to regulate railroad companies operating in Louisiana. This decision was upheld by the state’s Supreme Court which cited a number of legal precedents that declared segregated facilities to be constitutional. So, the Citizens’ Committee opted to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.

And over the last few months, oral arguments have taken place. Lawyers on Homer’s behalf have claimed that the Separate Car Act is a form of racial discrimination that denies Plessy his equal protection under the law and is an unreasonable exercise of the state’s police power. But so far the justices have not been persuaded. After weeks of deliberation, the Supreme Court is finally slated to deliver their highly-awaited judgment, and all the justices on the bench are in agreement — except for one.

At the head of the table sits Justice John Harlan, taut lines of worry stretching across his forehead. He is the only judge that believes the Separate Car Act is indeed unconstitutional.

As a former slaveholder from Kentucky, several decades ago, he too would have likely upheld the law. After the Civil War ended, Justice Harlan originally opposed civil rights for freed slaves; but in recent years, his perspective on the matter has shifted. In part, this is due to the brutally violent crimes of the white supremacist groups which have proliferated after the war. Now, the Justice has a record of arguing for African-Americans’ inclusion in the nation’s social and legal structures, making him unique among his peers. Over the past decade, Justice Harlan’s reputation for going against the rest of the bench has even earned him the nickname, “The Great Dissenter.”

So today, a familiar scene unfolds as Justice Harlan emphatically pounds his fist on the table, explaining his argument to the other judges. In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, he strongly believes that the arbitrary separation of citizens in a public space like a train has no legal justification. He notes that the law is used only to exclude blacks from railroad cars carrying whites, but never the other way around. Harlan finds this segregation wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and equality established by the nation’s constitution.

But Justice Harlan’s outrage is met with only vacant stares and silence. The other seven justices are of the opinion that the Separate Car Act is entirely constitutional. Taking a narrow interpretation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, they believe that Black Americans have only been granted political equality, not social equality. Therefore, any social discrimination caused by legislation like the Separate Car Act falls outside the scope of the Constitution’s protections. So long as Americans of color have access to facilities and services that are ostensibly equal to their white peers, the judges see nothing wrong with separating the races.

And it seems nothing Justice Harlan can say will change their minds. In his lone statement of dissent, Harlan rebukes his fellow justices’ reasoning, viewing their claims as an affront to the notion of equality. He writes that the nation’s constitution is color-blind, neither knowing nor tolerating classes between its citizens, making any segregation both unequal and inherently discriminatory.

But as the rest of the justices choose to uphold the Separate Car Act, they entrench what will come to be known as the “separate but equal” doctrine. And for decades to come, their ruling will function as the legal justification for codified racial inequality. The doctrine will legitimize discriminatory legislation in the South, known as Jim Crow laws, which will segregate most all public facilities on the basis of skin color.

Though "the separate but equal" doctrine will dictate that people of all races be provided with the infrastructure of equal quality, those provided to Black Americans will be consistently inferior, leading to widespread feelings of anger and discontent. For six decades, this racial segregation will continue, until Plessy v. Ferguson is finally overturned in 1954, transforming American society and earning Homer Plessy a historic honor.

Act Three

It’s the morning of January 5th, 2022 in New Orleans; 130 years after Homer Plessy was arrested for violating the state’s Separate Car Act.

In the courtyard of a red brick building, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards sits at a table, carefully parsing through a set of papers neatly propped up before him. All around him stands a crowd of expectant onlookers, excited to see Homer Plessy finally pardoned.

After the United States Supreme Court ruling in 1896, Homer’s criminal trial resumed, and he was convicted and fined. He lived the rest of his life in obscurity, dying in 1925 with the conviction still on his record.

Twenty years later, the Supreme Court overturned their “separate but equal” doctrine in the case: Brown v. Board of Education, deeming segregated public educational facilities inherently unequal and beginning the end of racial segregation. Now, Louisiana’s Board of Pardons has decided that it’s time for Homer Plessy’s criminal record to reflect the nation’s progress.

Among the crowd gathered to watch the Governor grant Louisiana's first posthumous pardon are Keith Plessy, a descendant of Homers, as well as Phoebe Ferguson, a descendant of the judge that oversaw Homer’s case. Both rejoice as the paperwork is signed and the legacy of the man who dared to take a stand against his day’s injustices is recognized and honored.

For Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, the pardon will come as a welcome development amid their greater advocacy for civil rights education. By the time of Homer’s pardon, Keith and Phoebe will have already joined forces to found a nonprofit called Plessy and Ferguson Foundation. Through this organization, the descendants of the historic lawsuit’s plaintiff and defendant will continue to help schools teach the history of the case, keeping Homer Plessy’s legacy alive by educating students on the far-reaching consequences of his arrest which happened on June 7th, 1892.

Outro

Next on History Daily. June 8th, 1949. George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece, 1984, hits bookshelves, causing an immediate sensation with its chilling depiction of life under authoritarianism.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Rhea Purohit.

Produced by Alexandra Currie-Buckner.

Executive Producers are Steven Walters for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.