Homer Plessy

Biography

Homer Plessy was born in 1862 in New Orleans and became a shoemaker and member of the Creole community who believed deeply in equality under the law. In 1892 he joined a carefully planned civil rights challenge to Louisiana's segregation laws, deliberately taking a seat in a whites-only railcar so his case could press the question of equal treatment before the United States Supreme Court.

Although the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld 'separate but equal,' his courageous stand laid groundwork for future generations who would continue the struggle for civil rights, and he is honored for his courage and quiet dignity in rest at Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1.