Harlan once said: “But in the eyes of the Constitution, in the eyes of the law, there is no superior, dominant ruling class of citizens in this country. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color blind and does not recognize or tolerate classes among citizens." The state of Louisiana passed a law requiring separate rail cars for blacks and whites. It was all about housing being “separate but equal,” meaning public facilities were divided by race but the place had to serve the same purpose. In 1892, Homer Plessy was one-eighth African American and sat in a "whites only" car on a Louisiana train. He refused to get into the car reserved for blacks and was arrested. I believe this was unconstitutional due to the 13th and 14th amendments. States ratified Jim Crow laws to legally separate whites from blacks and created separate schools, facilities, parks, and other places. When Plessy was arrested, he petitioned the Louisiana Supreme Court against Ferguson to "stop the prosecution of him for criminal violation of state law." (Handout) Once again, the Louisiana Supreme Court refused and he appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The arguments in this case involve the 13th Amendment, which eliminated slavery, and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which “prohibits the States from denying to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws ”. When the matter reached the U.S. Supreme Court, Plessy was taken to court against Judge John H. Ferguson. (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/equal_protection) Was a state law requiring separate accommodations a violation of equal protection? If the St...... middle of paper ......cation in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and turned the civil rights movement into an innovation. By 1954, many of the United States had segregated schools based on race, which was made legal by the Plessy V Ferguson case. “Separate but equal” facilities should be unconstitutional because they violated the 13th and 14th amendments and everyone was created equal, so that's not possible. the breed should be separated from another breed. In my opinion Homer Plessy never broke any laws or did anything wrong just as the “separate but equal” facilities were unconstitutional. Harlan once said, “Everyone knows that the statues in question arose from the purpose, not so much of excluding whites from railroad cars occupied by blacks, as of excluding people of color from cars occupied or assigned to whites.”.. “