Louisiana governor ‘looks forward’ to reviewing pardon of civil rights leader Homer Plessy
lailluminator.com
The Louisiana Board of Pardons voted to pardon Homer Plessy — a Creole man whose arrest for sitting in a “whites-only" car led the Supreme Court in 1896 to uphold segregation on the basis of race for another 50 years.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has final approval of the decision, was out of state Friday, “but looks forward to receiving and reviewing the recommendation of the Board upon his return," Shauna Sanford, the governor's spokesperson, said.

In 1892, Plessy — who was described in the Supreme Court ruling as “a free man who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth of African descent" — was arrested for sitting in a “whites-only" railroad car on a train running between New Orleans and Covington.

The Plessy v Ferguson decision justified whites-only spaces in trains and buses, hotels, theaters, schools and other public accommodations, according to the Associated Press. The decision was later overruled by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

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