Homer Plessy, key to ‘separate but equal,’ on road to pardon
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana board has voted to posthumously pardon Homer Plessy, the namesake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1896 “separate but equal” ruling affirming state segregation laws. The state Board of Pardon voted unanimously on Friday to clear the Creole man’s record of a conviction for refusing to leave a whites-only train car in New Orleans. The decision now goes to Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has final say over the pardon. Plessy was arrested in 1892 and pleaded guilty to violating the Separate Car Act after the Supreme Court’s ruling. He died in 1925 with the conviction on his record.
