UPDATE JANUARY 5, 2022:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s governor is preparing a posthumous pardon for Homer Plessy, who was arrested in 1892 for challenging a ban on Black people sitting in “whites-only” train cars. The Plessy v Ferguson ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ushered in a half-century of laws calling for “separate but equal” accommodations in schools, housing, theaters and other venues. Gov. John Bel Edwards scheduled the ceremony close to the 125th anniversary of Plessy’s guilty plea. The trial judge’s great-great granddaughter says she hopes the pardon will “give some relief to generations who have suffered under discriminatory laws.”
UPDATE NOVEMBER 18, 2021:
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s governor says he will posthumously pardon Homer Plessy, whose 1892 arrest for refusing to leave a “whites only” railroad car wound up putting “separate but equal” into U.S. law. Gov. John Bel Edwards says he wants relatives of both Plessy and the judge whom he sued in “Plessy v. Ferguson” to participate. Plessy’s purchase of a ticket and his seating choice were part of an effort by an 18-member civil rights committee to overturn the segregationist law. Instead, it led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed a half-century of segregation. Edwards says he wants proper attention drawn to removing a conviction for something that should have never been a crime.
ORIGINAL STORY NOVEMBER 12, 2021:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana board has voted to posthumously pardon Homer Plessy, the namesake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1896 “separate but equal” ruling affirming state segregation laws. The state Board of Pardon voted unanimously on Friday to clear the Creole man’s record of a conviction for refusing to leave a whites-only train car in New Orleans. The decision now goes to Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has final say over the pardon. Plessy was arrested in 1892 and pleaded guilty to violating the Separate Car Act after the Supreme Court’s ruling. He died in 1925 with the conviction on his record.
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