Citizens' Committee Organizes Plessy Test Case Against Separate Car Act

New Orleans' Comité des Citoyens (Citizens' Committee), composed largely of free Creoles of color, raises funds and organizes a deliberate legal challenge to the Separate Car Act. They recruit Homer Plessy — one-eighth African descent, visually white — to purchase a first-class ticket and sit in the white car. They also arrange for East Louisiana Railroad to be aware of the plan, and engage attorney Albion Tourgée for the eventual Supreme Court case.