Brown v Board of Ed Event - May 17 - Covinton, LA - NAACP Event

[Dylan Garcia]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



GREATER SLIDELL, GREATER COVINGTON ST. TAMMANY PARISH BRANCHES OF THE NAACP TO GATHER ON 51ST ANNIVERSARY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION, MAY 17, 2005



NAACP gathering to remember Homer Plessy without whom there would have been no Brown v. Board of Education.



In June of 1892, Homer Plessy bought a train ticket for travel from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. In 1892, African Americans were required to sit in a “black-only” railroad car. Mr. Plessy refused, and sat in the “whites-only” car. He was arrested and thrown into the New Orleans jail.



Mr. Plessy was convicted of refusing to leave the “whites-only” car. His conviction was upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court. Mr. Plessy and his advocates appealed his conviction to the United States Supreme Court.



Mr. Plessy sued to prevent Judge Ferguson (the trial judge in New Orleans where Mr. Plessy was found guilty in the first place) from carrying out Mr. Plessy’s sentence - a $25 fine or 20 days in jail.



On May 18, 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads. For sixty years, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision upheld the principle of racial segregation. Across the country, laws mandated separate accommodations on buses and trains, and in hotels, theaters, and schools.



The Supreme Court's majority opinion denied that legalized segregation connoted inferiority. However, in a dissenting opinion, Justice John Marshall Harlan argued that segregation in public facilities smacked of servitude and abridged the principle of equality under the law.



Sixty years later, on May 17, 1954, after hearing arguments by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) lawyer Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court overruled the Plessy v. Ferguson decision. In Brown v. the Board of Education, a unanimous Court adopted Justice Harlan's position that segregation violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.



NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall became the first African American Supreme Court Justice in 1967.



In remembrance of Homer Plessy, the Greater Slidell, Greater Covington, St. Tammany Parish Branches of the NAACP will hold a gathering at the St. Tammany Parish Justice Center across the street from the old Covington Train Depot at 10:00 AM. The public is invited.



CONTACT: ANNE SPELL @ [phone]

FRED FIELDS @ [phone]