Plessey vs Ferguson was a trial in 1892 about Homer Plessey’s decision to ride in a white-only train car in Louisiana despite being 1/8 of a black man. Plessey’s actual lawyer argued under the civil rights act and the 14th amendment that Plessey had a right to sit in the train car however, they still lost the case. This decision would greatly affect later generations and would make way for Jim Crow laws. Below I have a speech of what I would have said as Plessy’s lawyer arguing from the perspective of social norms and traditions.
During the time many would argue what Homer Plessy did was not traditional and will never be considered normal within society. A black man riding alongside a white man is considered untraditional and nowhere within the social norms of today’s country. While I do recognize at the time traditionally and socially this type of integration had not been seen. However today I would like to question you on why it does not make sense for a white man and a black man to not be able to ride in the same train car.
First, I would like to point out a social norm of African Americans’ role in the household of many white families. During slavery, it was normal to have slaves working in the house as cooks and chiefs, but most importantly nannies. A nanny is a job for African American women since slavery times and has continued to be a tradition during this time period. Most nannies are given the extremely important task of playing a part in raising our future generation of politicians, doctors, and businessmen. In our society, it is even normal for a nanny to breastfeed a white child as if they are it's own. A nanny has become so ingrained in our society that the state of Louisiana made the only exception to their separate car act where nannies travel with childing of the opposite race. I brought up this point to ask you how it can be normal for us to trust an African American person to not only cook and clean in our household but to raise our children, but it cannot be normal for them to simply ride in the same train car.
Second, I want to bring up the traditional idea that African American people are inferior and not intellectual people. This traditional way of thinking has been disproven by African Americans time and time again. African American people have proven to be educated through their speech, writing, and overall intelligence they have even gone as far as opening their universities. Previously we even had African Americans as a part of our congress, working in our justice system and fighting alongside us in times of war. Over and over African Americans have disproven the traditional idea of them being inferior in intelligence and professionalism. Yet we choose the insanity of being proven wrong repeatedly rather than getting rid of this repetitive tradition.
Finally, under the 14th amendment, Homer Plessy was a citizen and had the same rights as any other person within the train car that he occupied. Therefore, any privileges that we believe to be granted to any citizen also apply to Homer Plessy. Meaning since it is normal for citizens to sit wherever they please on whichever train car, Plessy was acting within the norms of any other citizens. Making this trial untraditional, any other citizen within this room would not be in court for sitting where they please. Instead to any other citizen, this trial would seem outrageous because it does not fit into the norms of a citizen in this nation.
Additional Links
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5484/
http://ethanlewis.org/history/downloads/plessy.pdf
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2714687#metadata_info_tab_contents
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