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Plaintiff in 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Case Granted Posthumous Pardon

HeadlineJan 06, 2022

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has issued a posthumous pardon to Homer Plessy, who was the plaintiff in the landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine. Plessy was a Black man who was arrested in 1892 for refusing to leave a “whites only” passenger car of the East Louisiana Railroad. Governor Bel Edwards spoke Wednesday in New Orleans.

Gov. John Bel Edwards: “The cause of the pardon that we gather today to celebrate unfortunately isn’t limited to righting a historical wrong. The pernicious effects of Plessy linger still. In terms of race relations, equality and justice, we are not where we should be. And quite frankly, we’re not where we would have been, had at least four other justices had the same fidelity to the Constitution.”

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