Homer Plessy Arrested on Train, Test Case Begins

Homer Plessy purchases a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad and sits in the white car. Per the Citizens' Committee plan, a private detective hired by the railroad identifies him as one-eighth Black and has him arrested. Judge John Howard Ferguson rules the Separate Car Act constitutional as applied to intrastate travel. The case begins its journey to the Supreme Court as Plessy v. Ferguson.