Who was Ferguson?
John Howard Ferguson born June 10, 1838, was an American lawyer and judge from Louisiana, most famous as the defendant in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. Ferguson was born the third and last child to baptist parents, John H. Ferguson & Sarah Davis Luce. John Howard Ferguson chose a different vocational path and taught school in his early years, finally setting about to study law. Ferguson moved to New Orleans and met his wife, Virginia Butler Earheart. Ferguson served in the Louisiana Legislature and practiced law in New Orleans until he was tapped in 1892 for a judgeship at the criminal district court, Section A, for the parish of New Orleans, Louisiana. There he presided over the case Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana. The case was brought by Homer Plessy and eventually led to the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision by the United States Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation ("Plessy v. Ferguson - 163 U.S. 537 (1896)").
What actually happened?
"When Plessy was arrested the Citizen's Committee had already retained a New York attorney, Albion W. Tourgee, who had worked on civil rights cases for African Americans before. Plessy's case went to trial a month after his arrest and Tourgee argued that Plessy's civil rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution had been violated. While Judge John Ferguson had once ruled against separate cars for interstate railroad travel (different states had various outlooks on segregation), he ruled against Plessy in this case because he believed that the state had a right to set segregation policies within its own boundaries. Tourgee took the case to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which upheld Ferguson's decision" (Robinson).
Southern States took advantage of the fact that the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision legalized segregation and began to pass laws like those in Mississippi, requiring segregation and stating that anyone not following the law could be put in jail. Though the Supreme Court accepted the proposition that these people could maintain their full equality even while being racially separated, Southern states continued to push this ruling deeper and deeper ("Plessy vs. Ferguson:Separate isn't Equal").
Southern States took advantage of the fact that the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision legalized segregation and began to pass laws like those in Mississippi, requiring segregation and stating that anyone not following the law could be put in jail. Though the Supreme Court accepted the proposition that these people could maintain their full equality even while being racially separated, Southern states continued to push this ruling deeper and deeper ("Plessy vs. Ferguson:Separate isn't Equal").