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June 7, 1892, New Orleans, Louisiana.

A 30-year-old black man named Homer Plessy buys the ticket for the 415 train to Covington.

The train arrives at the station on the corner of Preston Royal,

and it is made up of cars for white passengers and cars for black passengers.

Plessy steps into the car for white passengers and takes a seat.

The conductor asks Plessy his race, Plessy tells him,

and then the conductor insists he has to move to the car for black riders.

Plessy refuses.

And a detective who just happens to be there arrests Plessy and removes him from the car.

These are the events that resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision,

an anti-canon decision, one universally agreed upon as a mistake.

A decision that I thought I knew about, but was dead wrong.

You're listening to Civics 101, I'm Nick Fadice.

I'm Hannah McCartney.

And today we're talking about an event that was not just an individual act of protest,

an arrest that was anything but coincidental, and contrary to what I've learned beforehand,

a decision that did not establish the separate but equal doctrine.

Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896.

So far, Nick, you've talked a lot about what this case is not.

Can we start with what it is?

Yeah, in 1890, the state of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act.

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