We as Freemen: Plessy V. Ferguson Paperback -

From the rear cover

"This absorbing narrative makes an important contribution to the literature on that notorious 1896 United States Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson."
-Journal of Southern History

"Medley's detailed history stands on its own as the most complete historical accounting of one of the Court's most infamous decisions."
-Law & Politics Book Review

In June 1892, Homer Plessy, a free man of color who could "pass" for white, bought a first-class railway ticket from New Orleans to Covington. His was quickly arrested and removed from the train. Plessy's arrest was the result of a carefully choreographed campaign of civil disobedience planned by the Comit1/2 des Citoyens. In 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson, Louisiana's famous Supreme Court case, established the separate-but-equal doctrine that preceded both Rosa Parks' defiance of bus segregation in Alabama and the legal arguments of Brown v. Board of Education.
Author Keith Weldon Medley grew up in New Orleans, not far from where Homer Plessy lived. A two-time recipient of initiative grants from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Medley has published extensively in periodicals. We as Freeman: Plessy v. Ferguson is expanded from an article in Smithsonian magazine.