Homer Plessy receives posthumous gubernatorial pardon
10th January 2022 · 0 Comments
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
On January 5, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed Louisiana’s posthumous pardon of civil rights pioneer Homer A. Plessy.
Plessy was convicted of violating Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890. In June 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad Company train for Covington from the Press Street Station when a conductor asked him to leave the whites-only car and sit in the “colored car.” He did not comply, resulting in his arrest.
Plessy, a Tremé shoemaker of Haitian-French descent, was a member of the Citizens’ Committee in New Orleans. He intended to be arrested for being Black in a whites-only train car to challenge the unjust law.
Louisiana’s Citizens Committee challenged the constitutionality of the arrest. Plessy’s attorneys argued that the Separate Car Act and Plessy’s arrest violated his rights under the 13th and 14th Amendments. The United States Supreme Court heard Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 and ruled that the Constitution permitted legally-enforced racial segregation.
Media coverage at the time of the ruling showed no sympathy to Plessy. Louisiana’s The Weekly Messenger wrote in a May 1896 article: “The supreme tribunal of the United States having rendered this decision, the principle of the ‘Jim Crow’ car is now finally established in this State (sic); and much discomfort and irritation will be saved to white people as they travel in Louisiana.”
After the ruling, Plessy lived in New Orleans. He worked as a clerk, warehouse worker and insurance collections agent. He remained active in social organizations until his death in 1925. Plessy v. Ferguson’s affirmation of “separate but equal” doctrine would not be overturned until 1954 when the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that Jim Crow laws were unconstitutional.
As the 125th anniversary of Plessy’s guilty plea in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court approached, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams submitted an application to the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Gov. Edwards for Plessy to receive a full gubernatorial pardon.
The Louisiana Pardon Board voted unanimously on Nov. 12 to pardon Plessy. While there was almost two months between the pardon board’s decision and Gov. Edwards’ signature, the governor’s approval was a formality as he had said he would definitely sign the pardon once it was placed before him.
“It was important that the office that prosecuted Homer Plessy be the office to ask for his name to be pardoned,” said Williams in a press release from the governor’s office. “While Homer Plessy’s actions made him guilty of a crime under law, it was the law that was the real crime.”
“Mr. Plessy’s conviction should never have happened. But, there is no expiration on justice. No matter is ever settled until it is settled right. It is with great joy that today I pardon Homer Plessy and settle this matter. We still have a long way to go when it comes to equality and justice, but this pardon is certainly a step in the right direction,” said Gov. Edwards in the press release.
The pardoning ceremony took place on the ground of the old Press Street Station that now serves as a campus for the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). It began with a cello rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Kate Dillingham, a descendant of Judge John Marshall Harlan, the lone dissenting Supreme Court justice in Plessy v. Ferguson.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell attended the event and voiced her support of the pardon on Twitter:
“It’s an honor to serve as Mayor and be able to witness historic events in the City of New Orleans (sic),” tweeted Cantrell. “This was an great day for the City and the descendants of Mr. Homer Plessy (sic).”
The 2006 Avery C. Alexander Act made Plessy’s pardon possible. State Sen. Edwin Murray wrote this act to provide justice for early civil rights activists whose records are still tainted by convictions for violating unjust Jim Crow laws. Alexander was a minister, legislator and civil rights pioneer who passed away in 1999.
In a twist of fate, the descendants of Homer Plessy and Judge John Ferguson met through a mutual friend and struck up a friendship that blossomed into the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation. Keith Plessy, Homer Plessy’s great-great-first cousin, and Phoebe Ferguson, Judge Ferguson’s great-great-grand-daughter, travel to schools, festivals and other institutions to share their mutual history and promote unity and understanding.
“I feel that working together, we have been trying to tell the whole story of the Citizens Committee and the Civil Rights Movement that continued after this case,” Keith Plessy said in an article published by The Louisiana Weekly on December 13. “[The Plessy strategy] was the blueprint that was used over and over again [by Civil Rights advocates] in the 20th century.”
In the press release from the governor’s office, Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson both voiced enthusiastic support of the governor’s decision.
“With the stroke of his pen, Governor John Bel Edwards opens a new chapter in the legacy of Homer Adolph Plessy,” said Keith Plessy. “This historic posthumous pardon is proof that 125 years after his conviction, the state of Louisiana recognizes and honors Plessy for his role in opening the gates of the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century.”
“We cannot undo the wrongs of the past but when our government officials publicly acknowledge them and take steps to legally correct them, we give hope to this generation and the next, who will continue to be on the front lines in the fight for justice and equity in America,” said Phoebe Ferguson.
The pardon is not the only way lawmakers have honored Homer Plessy’s legacy in recent years. The section of Press Street near the intersection of Royal and Press Streets is now called Homer Plessy Way. In April 18, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to honor Plessy by renaming the part of Press Street where Plessy was arrested. There is also a historical marker at the site.
Despite Homer Plessy’s historical importance, there are no known photographs of him. A photo that is commonly circulated as Plessy is actually of PBS Pinchback, the first Black governor of Louisiana.
This article originally published in the January 10, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
