Mock Trial: Plessy v Ferguson

Background: This 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. It stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Court ruled that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and blacks did not conflict with the 13th and14th Amendments. Restrictive legislation based on race continued following the Plessy decision, its reasoning not overturned until Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954.

(http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/plessy-v-ferguson)

The judge during this mock trial ruled the winning side to be Ferguson. The side of Ferguson argued that the train got all individuals from point A to point B at the same time, allowed for more comfort ability by separating the races, and the precedents set that people of color and whites had to sit separate, and no matter the fraction of black within Mr. Plessy, he was to follow the law. The side arguing in defense of Plessy mostly claimed it unfair to separate the races, furthering segregation and going against the bible, as all of God's creation were not being treated equally. Similarly, the clause of equal privilege and protection was brought up in both cases, and generally dismissed.