Plessy v Ferguson upheld segregation – now Plessy’s family seeks a pardon

125 years after the landmark ruling, Plessy and Ferguson descendants and the New Orleans district attorney are seeking a posthumous pardon

On 7 June 1892, an act of bravery undertaken by a free man of color in segregated Louisiana had historic consequences.

Homer Plessy, a New Orleans shoemaker of mixed heritage, purchased a first class rail ticket and boarded a train bound for Covington. He took a seat in a whites-only car and declared to the conductor that he would not move. The planned act of civil disobedience was orchestrated by a local civil rights organization to challenge the Louisiana Separate Car Act, one of a number of segregationist laws passed in the post-Reconstruction south.