Governor to pardon Plessy, of ‘separate but equal’ ruling

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s governor is preparing a posthumous pardon for Homer Plessy, who was arrested in 1892 for challenging a ban on Black people sitting in “whites-only” train cars. The Plessy v Ferguson ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ushered in a half-century of laws calling for “separate but equal” accommodations in schools, housing, theaters and other venues. Gov. John Bel Edwards scheduled the ceremony close to the 125th anniversary of Plessy’s guilty plea. The trial judge’s great-great granddaughter says she hopes the pardon will “give some relief to generations who have suffered under discriminatory laws.”