1896

Plessy v. Ferguson upholds Louisiana's Separate Car Act

The Comite des Citoyens, formed in New Orleans in 1891, arranged for Homer Plessy, an Afro-Creole shoemaker, to test the 1890 Separate Car Act, and he was arrested on June 7, 1892. On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 to 1 against him, with Justice Harlan writing in dissent, 'Our Constitution is color-blind.'