Plessy V. Ferguson Mock Trial

Homer Plessy is only 1/8th African American so he is a very light-skined male. He lived in the state of Louisiana and was born a free man. In the mock trial, team 3 was fighting the argue behind Plessy saying that he should be considered more white than black because in reality that is what he mostly is. Just because he is 7/8th white and only 1/8th African American doesn't mean he should be treated how a full African American was treated. Team 4 argued the fact that if someone has any part of African American in them back then, then that is what they were considered no matter if they were a mixed-race and mostly white, it did not matter. In 1890, Louisiana passed a law that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars. Homer Plessy was persuaded into participating in the orchestrated test case. Due to Homer Plessy being an 1/8th African American, under the Louisiana law he was classified as black, and that required him to sit in the "colored" car.

In 1892, Homer Plessy bought a first-class ticket at the Press Depot and boarded a "whites only" car. The railroad company committee hired a private detective with arrest powers to detain Plessy. After Plessy took a seat in the whites-only railway car, he was asked to vacate it, and sit in the blacks-only railway car. Homer Plessy refused and was arrested immediately by the private detective. Plessy was remanded for trials in Orleans Parish. His lawyers argued that the state law which required Louisiana Railroad to segregate trains had denied Plessy his rights under the 13th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution which provided for equal treatment under the law.

However, Judge Ferguson ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies while they operated within state boundaries. Poesy was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of $25.