WEBVTT - Plessy v. Ferguson 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:11.400 Welcome to Stuffy Missed in History Class from dot Com. Hello, 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.320 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Trac c V Wilson 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.280 and I'm Holly Frying. We are going to spend a 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.599 few episodes over the next few weeks talking about the 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:25.239 two Supreme Court cases that, uh sort of in a way, 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.280 book ended segregation in the United States and plus E 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:33.360 versus Ferguson. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.360 as long as the separate facilities were equal, and then 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.640 many years later, Round versus Board of Education overturned Plus 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.319 versus Ferguson and found that school segregation was unconstitutional. That 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.040 decision was such a big deal and was so monumental 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.160 and led to such a huge backlash. They were actually 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.880 going to split that part of the conversation into two 0:00:54.920 --> 0:01:00.400 episodes later down the road. So those two facts about 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.800 Plessy versus. Ferguson and Brown versus Board are things that 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.480 most people who have studied the Civil rights movement or 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.760 United States history in any way are pretty familiar with. 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.280 But I think for me and for you, both both 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.640 of us, and probably a lot of other people, the 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.680 names of the cases and what they did is the 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.759 beginning and the end of the conversation, like, I had 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.399 no idea what the story was behind how these cases 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:29.679 came to be or any of that until I really 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.080 got into researching them for these episodes. So that's why 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:34.520 we're going to spend some time on this to talk 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.360 about who the people were involved in Plessy versus Ferguson 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:40.520 and Brown versus Board, and sort of the journey that 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:42.600 these cases took to come to the Supreme Court in 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:45.600 the first place. So the context that we're going to 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:47.960 start with today is actually the U. S. Civil War. 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:50.880 There are people who will argue that the Civil War 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:53.560 was not fought over slavery, that it was about states 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.840 rights or economics. And while states rights and economics were 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:01.360 certainly involved, the primary rights in questions in were the 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.160 right to own slaves and the right to travel freely 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:08.560 with slaves into states where slavery was illegal. The primary 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.960 economic factor at issue was that the Southern economy really 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:16.600 relied on slavery in labor intensive industries such as cotton farming. 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.639 You could also make the argument that the Civil War 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.760 was fought, oh the b over neither of those two things. 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.560 That it was spought because the North wanted to preserve 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.840 the Union of the States, but the South wanted to 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.920 succede from that union. And while strictly speaking this is 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:35.360 also true, the big factor that was driving states to succeed, 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.919 which was specifically cited in the declarations of causes that 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:44.360 were issued by Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, was slavery. 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.000 This is all relevant because after the Union won the 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.440 war in eighteen sixty five, slavery was abolished in the 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.519 places where it was still legal. The federal government tried 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:57.360 to rebuild the Southern infrastructure and encourage racial equality in 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:01.960 a period that became known as the Reconstruction. Three amendments 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.600 were added to the United States Constitution as part of 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:09.880 this effort. The thirteenth Amendment formally abolished slavery. The fourteenth 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.040 Amendment granted citizenship to anyone who was born in the 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.720 United States or nationalized, which included former slaves, and the 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.919 fifteenth Amendment read, in part, the right of citizens of 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.000 the United States to vote shall not be denied or 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.920 abridged by the United States or by any State, on 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:30.359 account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. There 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.560 was a lot more going on during Reconstruction all of 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.000 the twists and turns could easily be their own whole 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.720 series of episodes. But to make an extremely long story short, 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:44.040 the South overall resented the largely Northern pressure to free 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.680 slaves and give them the right to vote. This was 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.560 especially true as black officials were elected to office in 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.200 the South, and for a brief period of time, some 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.960 progress was made towards rachel equality. As the Southern states 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:59.840 were readmitted to the Union and the federal government had 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.400 less influence on how those states were run, the states 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.480 started passing laws that restricted African Americans right to vote 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.560 by basically taking advantage of the fact that most of 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.480 them had been slaves, and during their time as slaves, 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.000 they had not been allowed to learn to read or write, 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.640 or to earn money or to hold property. So new 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.279 laws required that in order to vote, people had to 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.960 pass a literacy test, or pay up poll tax, or 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:29.080 own property, something that in general, white people in the 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:31.640 South could do much more easily than black people could. 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:36.200 Some of these tests were also virtually unpassable, but were 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.880 only required for black voters, but their right to vote restricted, 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.080 Black Americans lost many of their prior gains in terms 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:48.799 of representation in the government. Afterwards, states, both southern states 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.680 and border states enacted segregation laws that became known as 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.159 Jim Crow laws, which separated black and white citizens in 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.320 everything from hospitals to water fountains. Just the name Jim 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.760 Crow was an insult. It came from a heavily stereotypical 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:08.280 character in minstrel shows. These laws were enforced not just 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.359 through the usual means of making arrests and bringing people 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.919 to trial, but also through a social structure that insisted 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.400 that black people be subservient to white people. The laws 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.600 were also enforced more directly through intimidation and violence, up 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.800 to and including murder. White supremacy organizations like the Ku 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.520 Klux Klan really flourished, and violence against black citizens at 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:35.360 the hand of white citizens became both commonplace and rarely prosecuted. 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.400 Before we get into talking about a Jim Crow law 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:40.720 and how it led to a Supreme Court ruling that 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.280 legalized segregation, do you want to have a word from 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:47.560 a sponsor? Sure stupendous, So to return to the story 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.479 of Plessy versus Ferguson. One example of these Jim Crow 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.120 laws was Louisiana's separate car law, and this law was 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.839 to quote promote the comfort of passengers on their trains 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:03.640 by provide quote equal but separate accommodations for the white 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:07.039 and colored races. So anyone who boarded a car in 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.560 Louisiana that was not meant for their race could be 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:14.279 fined or jailed. Interracial couples were not exempt from the law, 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.280 nor were black maids and servants who were traveling with 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:21.360 white employers. Really, the only exception was nurses who were 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.880 taking care of children of another race. This was signed 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:30.760 into law on July tenth. Thanks to its sizable black population, 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:35.000 including slaves, free slaves, and creoles of color, and to 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.599 the Union's presence in New Orleans during much of the 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.599 Civil War, New Orleans have become home to a large 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:45.120 population of affluent, politically active black citizens. When the separate 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.960 car law was passed, activists in New Orleans set to 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.000 work immediately trying to put together a plan to challenge it. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:56.280 On September one, eighteen, prominent black and Creole New Orleans 0:06:56.279 --> 0:07:00.800 citizens formed the Citizens Committee to test the constitutionality of 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:05.320 the Separate Car Law, or the Committoya. They got legal 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.200 help from a white lawyer named Albion W. Tourge he 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.440 was from New York and had been an abolitionist. Toorgey 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:13.920 waved his fees and he promised to argue the case 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.600 before the Supreme Court. Shouldn't make it all the way there, 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.440 since torge was both very busy and also very far 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.080 away from Louisiana. They also had the help of a 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:27.560 local lawyer named James C. Walker. The committee settled on 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:31.280 a strategy of civil disobedience. They would find someone to 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.680 break the separate car law and get arrested, and then 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.720 they would take the case through the court system. This, 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.760 they hoped would lead to overturning segregation, not just on 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:44.040 Louisiana trains, but in all of the United States. Then 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.160 they started looking for volunteers who the law would consider 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:51.240 to be colored, but who looked white. Legal distinctions about 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.720 who was considered to be part of which race really 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.640 varied from state to state and through the years, and 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.760 as a general rule, particularly in the South, the law 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:03.800 of quired smaller and smaller amounts of African American ancestry 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.280 to be considered colored, and eventually this came down to 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.600 the one drop rule, meaning that in a lot of places, 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:14.200 if a person had one drop of African blood that 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:18.360 person was considered to be black. Candidates had to be 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.160 law abiding citizens with good reputations, people who would not 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.080 be dismissed as disreputable, and who had nothing in their 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.320 background that could be that could become an easy excuse 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.280 for not taking their case seriously. Their first attempts to 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.319 break the separate car law was made by a man 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.080 named Daniel did Dunes, and he was a musician. He 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:38.800 was also the son of one of the members of 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.160 the committee, and he was one eighth black. He boarded 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.600 the first class car of a train on February and 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.240 then he told the conductor that he was colored. He 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.800 was removed from the train and arrested, but before the 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.000 case could go to trial, the charges against him were 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.040 dismissed because the state Supreme Court ruled in a different 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:02.400 case that state segregation laws couldn't apply to interstate travel. 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.720 Dating's tickets had been to Mobile, Alabama, so per the 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.520 Louisiana Supreme Court, that ride was regulated by federal law 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.960 and not state law. The committee had actually chosen an 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.760 interstate ticket on purpose because they were hoping to draw 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.720 on interstate commerce commerce laws in the case. The committee 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.640 tried again, and this time. The man breaking the law 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.640 was Homer Plessy, a thirty year old shoemaker. He was 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.160 also one eighth African American, one of his great grandmothers 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.600 had been black, and he had skin light enough that 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.760 he would not be questioned boarding the car. He bought 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.600 his first class ticket to Covington, Louisiana on the East 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.319 Louisiana Railroad, so that the whole trip would take place 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.199 within the borders of the state. Nobody raised any questions 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.400 when Plus he boarded the first class car, and different 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.560 accounts vary and exactly how the conductor came to know 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:55.680 that he was legally a colored man and in the 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.720 wrong place, and some of the versions Plus he just 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.880 told him, and in others the conductor asked because he 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.320 knew that the committee was sending someone to test the 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.800 segregation law that day, and in others the conductor asked 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:11.800 everyone in the car because it was part of his 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.400 job to confirm the race of all passengers and that 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:19.120 everyone was in the correct car on the train. Regardless 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.760 of how it played out, and this information came to light, 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.840 the train's conductor, J. J. Dowling, asked Homer Plessy to 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.120 leave the train after learning his race, and even though 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.480 the law designated separate but equal cars, there was not 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.040 actually a car for black passengers on the train that day. 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.560 Plus he refused, he was arrested by a private detective 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:44.000 hired by the Committee and jailed. Members of the Citizens 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:48.720 Committee pulled their money to bail Plusy out. Plessy's trial 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:53.560 was set for October thirteenth, eighteen two. James Walker, who 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.360 we mentioned earlier, argued that his arrest violated the thirteenth 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:01.280 and fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Previous court rulings had 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.480 expanded on the interpretation of the thirteenth Amendment not just 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:09.520 to include literal slavery, but also quote badges of slavery 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:11.800 and service ude, which is how an amendment that was 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.200 set up to abolish slavery was being applied to the 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:19.280 matter of being segregated on a train. But Lionel Adams, 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.320 the attorney for the prosecution, argued that the Separate Car 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.679 Act reduced racial tension and so it was actually good 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.760 for the state. He also argued that because the separate 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.000 cars were equal, it was not discriminatory to separate people 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.560 into them by their race, although we're not clear on 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.800 how that applied given that there was reportedly no actual 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:44.240 car for black passengers on that particular train. Judge John H. 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:48.240 Ferguson ruled in favor of the prosecution on November the eighteen, 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.320 and the next step in the case was the appeal. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.520 But again, we're gonna pause for a second for a 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.560 word from a sponsor before we dig into all of 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.520 that juicy material. So let's let's get back to the story, 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:01.240 which at the point is going to go to the 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.640 Supreme Court. Plus He's case went to the Louisiana Supreme 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.120 Court first, which heard it on November the twenty two 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.840 of that year. The arguments were essentially the same as 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.400 what had been argued in the court before, and in 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.880 what came as a surprise to no one, the court 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.080 ruled that the law was not discriminatory because it applied 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:23.040 equally to everyone. It would actually be four years before 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:25.280 the case would get to the U. S. Supreme Corps, 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:27.920 And as he had promised when originally agreeing to work 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.480 with the Citizens Committee, albion Tourge planned to argue the 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.240 case before the Supreme Court rather than appealing immediately. He 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:37.560 actually decided to take some time to try to raise 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.240 funds for the case and work out his strategy. In 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:43.959 addition to that, he and the Committee were also hoping 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.559 that by delaying a little bit, they would find themselves 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.320 before a court that would see their case more favorably. 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.760 Based on decisions that the court had already issued, justices 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.840 in two were really not very likely to find that 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.640 the separate car law was on the constitution all. The 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.120 President was just not running in favor of this case. 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.000 So the committee crossed their fingers that some of the 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.360 justices would be replaced before they submitted their own case, 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.480 and in eighteen two Supreme Court justices died and new 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.480 appointees took their place. However, this did not look much 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.280 better for Plessy in the Citizens Committee than the previous 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.480 court had. One of the new justices was a former 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.480 Confederate soldier and the other had a reputation for being 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.800 quite conservative. The new court also set an immediate precedent 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:36.000 of upholding other Jim Crow laws. Plus, in just those 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.960 couple of years, the overall racial climate in the United 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:43.400 States had gotten worse instead of better. So, in spite 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:44.800 of the fact that things seemed to be kind of 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.480 running against them towards a submitted the case which he 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:51.640 prepared along with Walker and Samuel F. Phillips, and he 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:55.760 submitted it four review towards the end of the Supreme 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.840 Court heard the case, which was now known as Plessy 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:02.160 versus Ferguson in eighteen ninety six. In the written briefs 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:05.360 and oral arguments, Tourge and team argued that the separate 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:10.000 car law was unconstitutional in several ways, including the following. 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.120 This is very much an abridged list, but first up, 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:18.080 it violated the Fourteenth Amendment from several different angles by 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.760 giving white citizens and the colored citizens different rights and 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.360 protections under the law. Second, while proponents of the law 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.360 claimed that it was for the comfort of both black 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.560 and white passengers towards they argued that it was really 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:33.240 for the comfort of white passengers at the expense of 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:38.160 black passengers, and therefore discriminatory. He also argued that the 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.800 law violated the Fourteenth Amendment to do process clause by 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.640 giving train conductors the power of law enforcement while giving 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:50.400 trained passengers no legal recourse about decisions the conductors made. 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.960 And last that it created conditions of subjection and inferiority, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.160 which previous court decisions had interpreted to be in violation 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:05.280 of the Amendment. Representing Louisiana's side was Alexander Peter Morse, 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.640 whose legal specialty was federal appeals. He argued that the 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.840 separate car law was designed to prevent problems and serve 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.680 the common good, so, rather than making African American passengers 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.640 second class citizens, according to him, it actually protected them 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:24.760 from harassment and discrimination by white passengers. He also noted 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.680 several prior cases in which the Supreme Court had had 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.600 upheld States rights in the matter of segregation, and he 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:33.880 said that the rights that issue in the separate car 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.240 law were not civil rights at all. They were social 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:42.280 rights which are not constitutionally protected. The Supreme Court announced 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:46.960 its decision on May eighteenth. Of eight, Justice David J. 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:51.240 Brewer excused himself from participating because his daughter had just died, 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.920 and the remaining eight judges upheld the constitutionality of the 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:59.120 separate car law in a seven to one ruling. Henry 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.200 Billings Brown wrote the majority opinion, which dismissed the idea 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.760 that the separate car law violated the Thirteenth Amendment entirely. 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.400 He also cited several cases in which the Court had 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.040 upheld States rights to segregate, and he dismissed the idea 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:18.560 that providing separate facilities was inherently discriminatory. This is the 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.359 thing he wrote on that point. We consider the underlying 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.880 fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.280 that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:33.560 colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.160 it is not by reason of anything found in the Act, 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.520 but solely because the colored race chooses to put that 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:44.160 construction upon it. So it goes on to say that 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.120 if quote, the colored race became the majority in the 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:51.120 state legislature and enacted the same law, that white people 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.800 would not think themselves inferior because of it. This was 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.560 the point where I had to stop reading Supreme Court 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.000 rulings and take a little break. That's probably for the 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:05.040 best in terms of your usual stability. There's a lot 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:09.920 that's really offensive in in the whole majority opinion, and 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.040 and the part where it's like this, you guys are 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:13.920 making a big deal out of it. This is on you, 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.159 not on us. That was the part that made me like, uh, 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.360 I feel like they haven't changed very much, because this 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.399 feels like the stop playing the race card of the 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.399 late ninetiesh injury. So the sole dissenter and all of 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:31.000 this was John Marshall Harlan, who went against the majority 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.119 with so much vigor that he became known as the 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.560 Great Dissenter. His dissent accurately predicted what was going to 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.120 happen next, which was the States were going to use 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.000 this ruling as a justification to enact a whole lot 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:48.560 more segregation laws, uh and to be more blatantly districted, discriminatory, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:50.680 feeling like they had the backing of the Supreme Court 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.880 in doing so. One of his statements like this quote, 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.199 In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will in 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.440 time proved to be quite as print as the decision 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.760 made by this tribunal in the dread Scott case. So 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.399 if you're not familiar with that one, that's dread Scott 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.199 versus Sanford, when dread Scott, who was a slave, sued 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.119 for his freedom, and the court decided that anyone with 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.480 African ancestry, whether they were a slave or free, was 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.240 not intended to be a citizen of the United States 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.160 and therefore was not entitled to bring such a suit 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.600 in federal court. The court also ruled that the federal 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:29.080 government couldn't prohibit slavery in territory that it had acquired 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:33.639 after the United States was founded. Harlan's descent also argued 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:38.159 strenuously against the idea that segregation was good for race relations. 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:42.280 To quote, sixty millions of whites are in no danger 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.560 from the presence here of eight millions of blacks. The 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.680 destinies of the two races in this country are indissolubly 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.800 linked together, and the interests of both require that the 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.679 common government of all shall not permit the seeds of 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.240 race hate to be planted under the sanction of law. 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:02.480 What can more certainly arouse race hate, What more certainly 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:07.840 create and perpetuate a feeling of distrust between these races 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.919 than state enactments, which in fact proceed on the ground 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.520 that colored citizens are so far inferior and degraded that 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.919 they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.480 by white citizens. That, as all will admit, is the 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:27.520 real meaning of such legislation as was enacted in Louisiana. Yeah, 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.840 his whole tone is basically, Uh, It's completely obvious to 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.520 everyone that the intent here is to subjugate an entire 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.600 race of people and upholding this law is going to 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:41.200 make it so much worse today. Plessy versus Ferguson is 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.159 a pretty infamous and notorious Supreme Court case, but at 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:45.959 the time it really did not make a lot of 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.479 big news. The reaction of a lot of the media 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.400 and of the majority as a whole was sort of 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:57.360 well obviously um Afterwards, though, states really did begin passing 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.520 more and more segregation laws, and in spite of the 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.320 ruling being based on the idea that things were separate 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.159 but equal, a lot of these separate facilities were not 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.240 equal at all. They were often massively and deliberately inferior 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.640 that from the facilities for white people, and a lot 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.840 of people interpreted this ruling to mean that all discrimination 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.159 and everything was legal, not just the separation of races 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.440 into two separate but supposedly equal facilities. And while most 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:26.560 of these laws were passed in the South, this was 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:31.320 not exclusively a Southern phenomenon. Of the segregation laws in 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:34.199 the United States were in the North, Midwest, and the West, 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.800 and it also was not just about segregating African Americans 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:42.639 in states with sizable populations of Asians, Mexicans, and Native Americans, 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:46.760 for example, these populations were segregated from the white population 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:51.600 as well since the Supreme Court had upheld the previous verdict. 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:55.280 Homer Plessy then appeared before Judge Ferguson in Louisiana one 0:20:55.280 --> 0:21:00.200 more time until on January eleven. This was to lead 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.560 guilty and to pay his fine for violating the separate 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.320 car law. He spent the rest of his life working 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:07.880 as a laborer and then a clerk, and then eventually 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:10.600 he became an insurance salesman for an African American owned 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:16.399 insurance company, Homer Plus. He died on March one. It 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:20.040 would be almost sixty years before this decision was overturned, 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.400 and we're going to talk about that, uh in another episode, 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:26.960 and then in another episode after that, we're going to 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.360 talk about what happened after it was overturned. And I'm 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.160 going to change courses completely to talk about some listener mail. 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.320 So this listener mail is from Neely, and Neely says, Hello, 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:41.720 Holly and Tracy. I love the podcast and have wanted 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.359 an excuse to be able to write and include picks 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.399 of my fur babies. I lived an Anchorage for two 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:49.960 point five years and my husband was born and raised 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.919 in Homer, Alaska. His grandma homesteaded there and Fairbanks and 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:56.480 likes to tell everyone she voted against becoming a state. 0:21:57.440 --> 0:21:59.240 I wanted to give you a quick correction on the 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:01.919 start of the Ida Rod. The ceremonial start as an 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.920 anchorage during for Rondie, but this is just the mushers 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:08.399 coming through town to being announced. The actual race start 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.560 is in Willow, Alaska. This is a common fact misquoted 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.280 when the race is discussed. I also wanted to give 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:16.560 you a few other fun facts. When you mentioned that 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:18.800 you felt sorry for the musher who only had a 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:21.159 fifty degree hut to warm in, I assure you it 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:23.640 probably felt like a sauna. I remember a two week 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.280 spell and anchorage when it didn't get above negative ten. 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:28.760 One morning, I was walking to my car in my 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:31.560 warmest gear and had to change into a light place 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:34.440 because it was just much too warm. I got to 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:37.720 my car to see that much too warm was four degrees. 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.560 It was really all relative. Also google for Rondie. That 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:44.879 is a hilariously Alaska event that includes not only the 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:48.920 ceremonial race start, but fur ball, snowshoe football, and the 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.720 running of the reindeer. Think running of the bulls. Only 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:54.360 reindeer are pretty chilled, so they kind of just wander 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:58.680 behind wondering what those crazy humans are doing. Another random 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.639 non fact from my Alaska native from from Nome. You 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.040 may want to fact checked. The town is named Nome 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:06.360 because on a census report that asked for the name, 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:08.840 it was written none because it was too small for 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:12.280