At a ceremony in New Orleans, Governor John Bel Edwards posthumously pardoned civil rights pioneer Homer Plessy, the subject of a separate but equal Supreme Court ruling that enabled decades of segregation of black Americans. Keith Plessy, a direct descendant, was on hand for today’s ceremony.
“This is truly a blessed day for the ancestors and the elders, for our generation today, for our children and generations yet to be born,” Plessy said.
Homer Plessy was a Creole man arrested in New Orleans 130 years ago when he refused to leave a whites-only railroad car. Plessy’s protest led to the 1896 ruling known as Plessy versus Ferguson, which said it was legal to have white-only spaces in public areas. Governor Edwards said unfortunately the negative effects of that ruling still linger.
“Plessy vs. Furgeson was incorrectly decided. That dissent accurately predicted the damage it would do to our country,” Edwards said referring to justice John Harlan’s sole dissenting vote.
The Supreme Court reversed segregation laws in 1954. Plessy died in 1921 with his conviction still on his record.
Edwards said this is Louisiana’s first pardon as a result of a 2006 state law that allows for pardons of people convicted under laws that were intended to discriminate.
“And I am beyond grateful that I have a small part to play in ensuring that Homer Plessys legacy will be entirely defined by the rightness of his cause and un-defiled by an unjust criminal conviction,” Edwards said.
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