What did Homer Plessy look like?

Answer 1

Homer Plessy was classified as an "Octoroon" by 19th-Century New Orleans standards, meaning he was one-eighth African in descent. Plessy had one black grandmother, a Haitian "free woman of color," named Catherine Mathieu, who married and bore eight children with Homer's French Caucasian grandfather, Germain Plessy. Homer was very light-skinned, and said his African heritage was "not discernable."

Plessy belonged to a group of New Orleans' African-American professionals, the Citizens Committee, that deliberately staged confrontations over Jim Crow laws in Louisianna. The law targeted in this case was Louisiana's Separate Car Act of 1890, which required separation of travelers by race. If Plessy's arrest hadn't been prearranged with the East Louisiana Railroad Company, he probably wouldn't have been challenged for sitting in the "whites only" car.

You can access a photo of Homer Plessy via Related Links, below.