{"id":62729,"date":"2022-01-07T02:49:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T02:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=62729"},"modified":"2022-01-07T02:49:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T02:49:12","slug":"pardon-for-plessy-v-fergusons-homer-plessy-is-an-overdue-admission-of-his-heroism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=62729","title":{"rendered":"Pardon for Plessy v. Ferguson’s Homer Plessy is an overdue admission of his heroism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pardon for Plessy v. Ferguson’s Homer Plessy is an overdue admission of his heroism<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

MSNBC<\/a>
\n2022-01-05<\/p>\n

Keisha N. Blain<\/strong><\/a>, Associate Professor of History
\nUniversity of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>
In ruling against Homer Plessy in 1896<\/a>, the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a> effectively legalized Jim Crow segregation<\/a> for the next 60 years.
\nUniversal History Archive \/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In rejecting Plessy\u2019s<\/a> argument that the Jim Crow law<\/a> implied Black people were inferior, the Supreme Court<\/a> upheld the notion of \u201cseparate but equal<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Homer Plessy<\/a>, a Creole shoemaker from New Orleans<\/a> and the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court<\/a> case Plessy v. Ferguson<\/em><\/a>, was pardoned by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards<\/a> on Wednesday, 130 years after Plessy challenged a Louisiana<\/a> law that required Black passengers and white passengers to use separate train cars. The case sanctioned the \u201cseparate but equal\u201d doctrine and validated state laws that segregated public facilities along the lines of race. The decision effectively legalized Jim Crow segregatio<\/a>n for the next 60 years.<\/p>\n

As historian Blair L.M. Kelley<\/a> explains in “Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019<\/a>“: “Plessy v. Ferguson<\/em> was the manifestation of the African American opposition to segregationist attempts to shame and degrade Black train passengers.”<\/p>\n

The decision to pardon Homer Plessy is a welcome one, an effort to clear his name and raise national awareness to his story. It is also a symbolic gesture to acknowledge a wrong that took place so long ago. In the proclamation Edwards signed Wednesday, he praised “the heroism and patriotism” of Plessy’s “unselfish sacrifice to advocate for and to demand equality and human dignity for all of Louisiana’s citizens.”…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In rejecting Plessy\u2019s argument that the Jim Crow law implied Black people were inferior, the Supreme Court upheld the notion of \u201cseparate but equal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,1467,369,8,23674,20],"tags":[32729,22498,22499,1447,32371,22022,2684,1438,579],"class_list":["post-62729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-law","category-louisiana","category-media-archive","category-social-justice","category-usa","tag-blair-l-m-kelley","tag-homer-a-plessy","tag-homer-adolph-plessy","tag-homer-plessy","tag-john-bel-edwards","tag-keisha-n-blain","tag-msnbc","tag-new-orleans","tag-plessy-v-ferguson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62730,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62729\/revisions\/62730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}