Mock Trial of Plessy v. Fergusson

          In class today, we decided to conduct a mock trial considering the supreme court case of Plessy v. Fergusson. In 1892, Mr. Plessy bought a train ticket for the whites only section of the rail car and in doing this he violated the Separate Car Act. Mr. Plessy was considered to be 1/8 black and 7/8 white, after taking seat in the whites only section he was arrested by a private detective and was taken off the train before the ride had arrived at its destination. He was then charged a fine of 25 dollars for the infraction. This law is ridiculous because the 7/8 of him should have allowed him to sit in the whites only section but the state of Louisiana did not allow for any percent black to sit in the white only section of public areas. Is it possible for him to have only 1/8 of his body sit in the black section, would the courts like for him to remove his arm and leave it in a separate section of the train? Team Lincoln states that Mr. Plessy did inform the rail company that he was black and they expected him to follow the law and sit with the black car, however he did go against this ruling and place himself into a predicament with the law.
         Plessy argues that the law is not content neutral and does discriminate exactly against blacks and not against any other races but the typical white vs. black separation. While the 14th amendment states that all citizens must be equal, no rights were violated by the railroads decision to create black and white cars. The cars were equal and allowed for each race to sit equally in their own cars therefore does not violate the 14th amendment. The law does not stamp the blacks as inferior it only says that each race must be treated equally and in this case they both were represented by the rail company equally. In this statement, I do believe that the law was not broken nor were the rights of the 14th amendment infringed, however it is wrong for the races to be separated just for their skin color and past. Therefore the supreme court should have voted for equal amenities for blacks and whites in public areas.