Separate Car Act Research Paper

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In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a bill called the Separate Car Act, which stated that all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this state, providing equal but separate seating arrangements for the white, and colored races, by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger coaches to secure separate accommodations. The penalty for sitting in the wrong compartment was a fine of $25 or 20 days in jail. A group of citizens decided to protest this Jim Crow law, a man who supported the group of blacks who were against this bill decided to take action. In 1892, a successful businessman named Homer Adolph Plessy living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was jailed for sitting in the…show more content…
In the late 1800’s it was “universally understood to assume the inferiority of African Americans, the act imposed a badge of servitude upon them in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment”, according to Harlan. The effect of the law was to interfere with the personal liberty and freedom of movement of both African Americans and whites. It was attempted to regulate the civil rights of citizens by the basis of their race.“Our Constitution is color-blind,” Harlan wrote. Henry Billings Brown was born in South Lee, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1836. Brown died in Bronxville, New York, on September 4, 1913. Brown attended Yale College, graduated in 1856. Then, Brown studied law in Ellington, Connecticut. Establishing an independent practice, he strived in maritime law. Brown was appointed to the post of Deputy United States Marshal for the city of Detroit. President Benjamin Harrison nominated Brown to the Supreme Court of the United States on December 23, 1890. Brown retired from the Supreme Court on May 28, 1906. He died in Bronxville, New York, on September 4, 1913, at the age of…show more content…
Harlan served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Harlan was the only justice to oppose the 1883 decision to strike down the Civil Rights Act of 1875. served on the U.S. Supreme Court for more than 30 years. He was the son of James Harlan, a lawyer and politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1835 to 1839. After graduating from Centre College in 1850, Harlan studied law at Transylvania University. In 1853, Harlan was admitted to the Kentucky bar. While he came from a wealthy slave-owning family, Harlan found himself in support of the Union cause during the Civil War. Soon after, Harlan resigned from his military post and won election as attorney general of Kentucky, having run as the Union Party's nominee. In 1876, he led the Kentucky delegation to the Republican National Convention. There, he helped Rutherford B. Hayes secure their party's nomination. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed John Marshall Harlan to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1877. Harlan served on the court until his death, on October 14, 1911, in Washington, D.C. The chief justice of the Supreme court during the Plessy v. Ferguson case was Melville Fuller. Melville was the 8th Chief Supreme Court Justice of the United States. Melville Fuller was born on February 11, 1833, in Augusta, Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College and attended Harvard Law School. He was elected as a Democrat to the

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