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Homer Adolph Plessy (March 17, 1862 – March 1, 1925) was the American Louisiana Creole of Color plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court decision in ''Plessy v. Ferguson''. Arrested, tried and convicted in New Orleans of a violation of one of Louisiana's racial segregation laws, he appealed through Louisiana state courts to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost. The resulting "separate-but-equal" decision against him had wide consequences for civil rights in the United States. The decision legalized state-mandated segregation anywhere in the United States so long as the facilities provided for both blacks and whites were putatively "equal". The son of French-speaking Creoles (see octoroon), Homer Plessy was born on St. Patrick's Day in 1862, at a time when federal troops under General Benjamin Franklin Butler were occupying Louisiana as a result of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, and had liberated African Americans in New Orleans who had been in bondage. Blacks could then marry whomever they chose, sit in any streetcar seat and, briefly, attend integrated schools. As an adult, Plessy experienced the reversal of the gains achieved under the federal occupation, following the withdrawal of federal troops in 1877 on the orders of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes.〔 Descendants of Plessy and Ferguson in newspaper article and photograph.〕 Due to his "fair" appearance, Plessy could have ridden in a railroad car restricted to people classified as white. However, under the racist policies then in force, he was classified as "1/8 black" or, according to the language of the time, an octoroon. Hoping to strike down segregation laws, the Citizens' Committee of New Orleans (Comité des Citoyens) recruited Plessy to deliberately violate Louisiana's 1890 separate-car law. To pose a clear test, the Citizens' Committee gave notice of Plessy's intent to the railroad, which opposed the law because it required adding more cars to its trains.〔 On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket on a train from New Orleans and sat in the car for white riders only. The Committee had hired a private detective with arrest powers to take Plessy off the train at Press and Royal streets, to ensure that he was charged with violating the state's separate-car law and not some other misdemeanor.〔 Everything that the committee had organized occurred as planned, except for the decision of the Supreme Court in 1896. "By then the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court had gained a more segregationist tilt, and the committee knew it would likely lose. But it chose to press the cause anyway, (Keith ) Medley said. 'It was a matter of honor for them, that they fight this to the very end.〔 == Biography == Homer Plessy was born Homère Patrice Plessy March 17, 1862, in New Orleans to Joseph Adolphe Plessy and Rosa Debergue, members of New Orleans' French-speaking Creole society.〔 p. 20〕 Another in this Creole society was Plessy's compatriot, Walter L. Cohen, who obtained an appointment as customs inspector from U.S. President William McKinley.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Louisiana Historical Association, ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'' (lahistory.org) )〕 Homer Plessy's paternal grandfather was Germain Plessy, a white Frenchman born in Bordeaux c. 1777.〔 p. 21〕 Germain Plessy arrived in New Orleans with thousands of other French expatriates who fled Saint-Domingue in the wake of the slave rebellion led by Toussaint L'Ouverture that wrested Haiti from Napoleon in the 1790s.〔 Germain Plessy married Catherine Mathieu, a free woman of color, and they had eight children, including Homer Plessy's father, Joseph Adolphe Plessy.〔 Homer Plessy's middle name would later appear as Adolphe after his father, a carpenter, on his birth certificate. Plessy belonged to Louisiana's French-speaking Creole class, which American society did not understand or accept. Plessy grew up speaking French. Adolphe Plessy died when Homer was seven years old. In 1871, his mother Rosa Debergue Plessy, a seamstress, married Victor M. Dupart, a clerk for the U.S. Post Office who supplemented his income by working as a shoemaker. Plessy too became a shoemaker. During the 1880s, he worked at Patricio Brito’s shoe-making business on Dumaine Street near North Rampart. New Orleans city directories from 1886 to 1924 list his occupations as shoemaker, laborer, clerk, and insurance agent.〔"Homer Adolph Plessy", ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'', Vol. 2 (1988), p. 655〕 By 1887, Plessy had become vice-president of the Justice, Protective, Educational, and Social Club, a group dedicated to reforming public education in New Orleans. In 1888, Plessy, then twenty-five years old, was married to nineteen-year-old Louise Bordenave by Father Joseph Subileau at St. Augustine Church which is located at 1210 Gov. Nicholls Street in New Orleans.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=St. Augustine Catholic Church of New Orleans: Homer Plessy )〕 Plessy’s employer Brito served as a witness. In 1889, the Plessys moved to Faubourg Tremé at 1108 North Claiborne Avenue. He registered to vote in the Sixth Ward’s Third Precinct. "At age thirty, shoemaker Homer Plessy was younger than most members of the Comité des Citoyens. He did not have their stellar political histories, literary prowess, business acumen, or law degrees. Indeed, his one attribute was being white enough to gain access to the train and black enough to be arrested for doing so. This shoemaker sought to make an impact on society that was larger than simply making its shoes. When Plessy was a young boy, his stepfather was a signatory to the 1873 Unification Movement—an effort to establish principles of equality in Louisiana. As a young man, Plessy displayed a social awareness and served as vice president of an 1880s educational-reform group. And in 1892, he volunteered for a mission rife with unpredictable consequences and backlashes. Comité des Citoyens lawyers Albion Tourgee, James C. Walker and Louis Martinet vexed over legal strategy. Treasurer Paul Bonseigneur handled finances. As a contributor to ''The Crusader'' newspaper, Rodolphe Desdunes inspired with his writings. Plessy's role consisted of four tasks: get the ticket, get on the train, get arrested, and get booked."〔 p. 17〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Homer Plessy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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