The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical InterpretationOxford University Press, 1988 M09 8 - 282 pages In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson upheld "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races" on all passenger railways within the state of Louisiana. In this account with implications for present-day America, Lofgren traces the roots of this landmark case in the post-Civil War South and pinpoints its moorings in the era's constitutional, legal, and intellectual doctrines. After reviewing de facto racial separation and the shift by southern states to legislated transportation segregation, he shows that the Fourteenth Amendment became a ready vehicle for legitimating classification by race. At the same time, scientists and social scientists were proclaiming black racial inferiority and lower courts were embracing separate-but-equal in ordinary law suits. Within this context, a group of New Orleans blacks launched a judicial challenge to Louisiana's 1890 Separate Car Law and carried the case to the Supreme Court, where the resulting opinions by Justices Henry Billings Brown and John Marshall Harlan pitted legal doctrines and "expert" opinion about race against the idea of a color-blind Constitution. Throughout his account, Lofgren probes the intellectual premises that shaped this important episode in the history of law and race in America--an episode that still raises troubling questions about racial classification and citizenship--revealing its dynamics and place in the continuum of legal change. |
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... Orleans , which holds the Louisiana Supreme Court's records for the nineteenth century ; Lester Sullivan of the Amistad Research Center , New Orleans ; Roger F. Jacobs , formerly rhe Librarian of the United States Supreme Court ...
... Orleans , which holds the Louisiana Supreme Court's records for the nineteenth century ; Lester Sullivan of the Amistad Research Center , New Orleans ; Roger F. Jacobs , formerly rhe Librarian of the United States Supreme Court ...
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Contents
3 | |
De Facto to De Jure Transportation Segregation in the South from the Civil War to the 1890s | 7 |
Plessy in Louisiana The Test Cases | 28 |
Plessy in Louisiana The Constitutional Clash | 44 |
The Constitutional Environment Lost Origins and Judicial Deference | 61 |
The Intellectual Environment Racist Thought in the Late Nineteenth Century | 93 |
The Transportation Law Environment Access by Leave Not Right | 116 |
Plessy Before the United States Supreme Court | 148 |
The Court Decides Jim Crow Affirmed | 174 |
Speaking to the Future | 196 |
NOTES | 209 |
255 | |
261 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Alexander Porter American argument assignment blacks Brown century cited citizens citizenship citizenship clause Civil Rights Act claim clause coach Coger colored common carriers common-law conductor constitutional decision DeCuir denied deprived Desdunes discrimination dissent doctrine due process enforcement equal accommodations equal protection equal protection clause evidence Ex parte Plessy exemption federal courts federal Supreme Court Ferguson filed first-class Fourteenth Amendment Georgia Harlan Henry Billings Brown Ibid inferior interpretation Interstate Commerce issue Jim Crow Judge judicial jurisdiction jury legislation legislature liberty Louisiana Supreme Court mandated Martinet Mississippi Negro opinion Orleans passengers persons Phillips plea Plessy's police power police regulations privileges prohibition question race racial separation Railroad Company Railway Company reasonable Republican rule schools seat Section segregation separate car law separate-but-equal Slaughter-House slavery smoking car social South Carolina southern statute Texas Thirteenth Amendment Tourgée and Walker Tourgée's United States Supreme W. E. B. DuBois Washington York