Louisiana governor to pardon Homer Plessy, namesake of landmark segregation case

Washington — Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards is poised to grant a posthumous pardon Wednesday for Homer Plessy, whose refusal in 1892 to leave a Whites-only railcar led the Supreme Court to uphold state racial segregation laws in what is considered to be one of its most shameful decisions. 

Edwards, a Democrat, will sign the pardon during a ceremony in New Orleans after the Louisiana Board of Pardons unanimously voted in November to clear Plessy's record more than a century after his arrest. Descendants of Plessy and John Howard Ferguson, the Louisiana judge who initially upheld the state's segregation law, forged a friendship and advocated for the posthumous pardon. 

The now-infamous case dates back to June 7, 1892, when Plessy, a New Orleans shoemaker who was one-eighth Black, purchased a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railway and sat in a seat in the car assigned for White passengers. Plessy, then 30 years old, was arrested and charged with violating Louisiana's Separate Car Act of 1890, which required railway companies to provide "equal but separate accommodations" for White and Black passengers.