Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 

Supreme Court of the United States

1896

Chapter

5

Title

Equality and the Constitution

Page

456

Topic

Slavery, Jim Crow, and the Equal Protection Principal

Quick Notes

This is a suit over the constitutionality of a state law which required railroads to provide "equal but separate" accommodations to whites and non-whites.

o         An 1890 a Louisiana statute required railroad companies to provide white and non-white passengers with "equal but separate accommodations."

o    In other words meaning to the requiring a separation of the races.

o         Under the statute, passengers using facilities not designated for their race were made criminally liable.

o         Plessy, who professed to be seven-eighths Caucasian, was prosecuted under the statute after refusing to leave a portion of the train reserved for whites.

o         The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the statute upon Plessy's challenge.

Rule

o         While the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly enacted to enforce the absolute equality of the races, it was not intended to abolish distinctions based on color, or to enforce social equality or a commingling of the races.

Application

o         Laws requiring the separation of races in public accommodations are constitutional so long s they are reasonable exercises of a states police power.

Courts - Reasoning

o         Gauged by this standard, we cannot say that the law at issue here is unreasonable.

Assumes Separation Stamp of inferiority

o         Plessy's argument is based on an assumption that the enforced separation of the two races places a stamp of inferiority on colored people.

o         This is simply not true.

Assumes that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation

o         The argument also assumes that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured by blacks except by a forced commingling of the races.

o         This also is not true, as legislation will not abolish people's feelings toward the races.

Cannot be inferior if equal both politically and civilly

o         If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically.

o         If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution cannot put them on the same plane.

Book Name

Constitutional Law : Stone, Seidman, Sunstein, Tushnet.  ISBN:  978-0-7355-7719-0

Issue

o         Whether laws requiring the separation of different races in public accommodations violate the 14th Amendment?  No.

Procedure

Louisiana

o         The state supreme court upheld the constitutionality of 1890 La. Acts No. 111, p. 152, which provided for separate railway carriages for whites and blacks

Supreme

o         The Court affirmed the judgment

Facts

Discussion

Key Phrases

Rules

Pl Plessy

Df Ferguson

Description

o         An 1890 a Louisiana statute required railroad companies to provide white and non-white passengers with "equal but separate accommodations."

o    In other words meaning to the requiring a separation of the races.

o         Under the statute, passengers using facilities not designated for their race were made criminally liable.

o         Plessy, who professed to be seven-eighths Caucasian, was prosecuted under the statute after refusing to leave a portion of the train reserved for whites.

o         The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the statute upon Plessy's challenge.

o          

Justice Brown

14th Amendment enforces absolute equality, does not distinguish

o         The 14th Amendment undoubtedly requires and enforces absolute equality among the races.

o          It could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based on color, or to enforce social equality, or a commingling of the races upon terms unsatisfactory to either.

Separation does not imply inferiority or violation of the 14th Amendment

o         Indeed, laws permitting and requiring separation of the races in places in which blacks and whites are likely to come into contact do not imply the inferiority of either race and do not result in a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Valid separation of Schools

o         The most common instance of this rule is the segregation of schools, which is generally recognized by courts as a proper exercise of state legislative and police powers.

Plessys Argument

o         Plessy suggests that this same argument will justify all sorts of rules to keep blacks and whites separate.

o         Requiring Blacks and Whites to walk on different sides of the street or to paint their houses different colors.

o         This based up on the theory that one side of the street is as good and the other, or that house or vehicle of one color is as good as one another color.

Court - Reply

o         The reply to this is that every exercise of the police power must be reasonable, and extend only to such laws as are enacted in good faith for the promotion of the public good, and not for the annoyance or oppression of a particular class.

Determining Reasonableness

o         In determining reasonableness, the legislature is at liberty to act with reference to the established usages, customs, and traditions of the people, with a view to the promotion of their comfort, and the preservation of the public peace and good order.

Courts - Reasoning

o         Gauged by this standard, we cannot say that the law at issue here is unreasonable.

Assumes Separation Stamp of inferiority

o         Plessy's argument is based on an assumption that the enforced separation of the two races places a stamp of inferiority on colored people.

o         This is simply not true.

Assumes that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation

o         The argument also assumes that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured by blacks except by a forced commingling of the races.

o         This also is not true, as legislation will not abolish people's feelings toward the races.

Cannot be inferior if equal both politically and civilly

o         If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically.

o         If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution cannot put them on the same plane.

Affirmed

DISSENT Justice Harlan

Constitution is color-blind.

o         There is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens.

o         There is no caste here.

o         Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.

o         In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.

Original to exclude African Americans from white cars

o         Although it appeared facially neutral, "[e]very one knows that [it] had its origin in the purpose, not so much to exclude white persons from railroad cars occupied by blacks, as to exclude colored people from coaches occupied by or assigned to white persons." The statute therefore interfered with the personal freedom of African Americans.

o         The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.

Rules

Rule

o         While the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly enacted to enforce the absolute equality of the races, it was not intended to abolish distinctions based on color, or to enforce social equality or a commingling of the races.

Application

o         Laws requiring the separation of races in public accommodations are constitutional so long s they are reasonable exercises of a states police power.

Class Notes