Where was Homer Plessy arrested after refusing to leave a white railroad car?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Plessy v. Ferguson judgment — Plessy v. Ferguson *Plessy* v. *Ferguson* judgment, issued by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 18, 1896, advancing the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws.

Homer Plessy was arrested after boarding the East Louisiana Railroad’s Number 8 train at the Press Street Depot in New Orleans. After the train pulled away from the station, Plessy refused the conductor's order to move to a "colored" car, asserting his rights as an American citizen. The train was stopped, and Detective Christopher Cain boarded the car to arrest him.1

This act of defiance was a calculated effort by the Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act to challenge the segregationist laws of the time. The subsequent legal battle culminated in the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which tragically upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine, effectively cementing the Jim Crow era.1