Homer Plessy was a citizen of the United States and a resident of the state of Louisiana. On June 7, 1892, he purchased a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railway from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. He entered a passenger car and took an empty seat in a car reserved for the whites only. The conductor demanded that he leave his seat and move to a car reserved for the “colored race.” When Plessy refused to move, he was arrested. He was brought to trial and found guilty of violating a state law requiring segregation on trains. Plessy appealed the decision of John Ferguson, the judge who claimed that as long as the railroad offered “separate but equal” seating, Plessy’s rights were protected. Plessy disagreed. He argued that the law was unconstitutional — that is, it went against the 14th Amendment.

How the case is decided depends upon whether a law passed by the state of Louisiana in 1890 requiring separate railroad cars for Black and white passengers is in keeping with the U.S. Constitution. The first section of the law states:

All railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this state, shall provide separate but equal accommodations for the white and colored races.… No person or persons shall be permitted to occupy seats in coaches, other than the ones assigned to them, on account of the race they belong to.

​​The Dispute in Plessy v. Ferguson