The Plessy and Ferguson Initiative

05/18/2026

There are still seats left for today's May 18th history event. Join us!

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05/18/2026

130 years ago today, the Supreme Court wrote Jim Crow into United States law. One justice dissented.

Justice John Marshall Harlan's solitary dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) stands as one of the most powerful examples of principled decisions in American legal history. While the Supreme Court majority upheld racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine, Harlan argued that "our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." His dissent recognized that the Louisiana law requiring racial segregation in railroad cars was designed to perpetuate racial hierarchy and violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments' promises of equality and citizenship. Harlan understood that legal segregation stamped Black Americans with a badge of inferiority and could not be reconciled with constitutional guarantees of equal protection. Though his position was rejected by his contemporaries and he stood alone among the justices, his words preserved an alternative constitutional vision during an era of profound racial injustice.

Harlan's lone dissent reminds us that standing up to injustice is never wasted. It keeps the dream of equality alive for generations that follow. One voice really can change the course of history. Homer Plessy and the Comité des Citoyens (Citizens' Committee) lost their case, but their fight against segregation lit a fire for future activists. Harlan stood alone in 1896, but fifty-eight years later, his words set the foundation upon which the Supreme Court unanimously overturned "separate but equal" in Brown v. Board of Education. Even when dissent loses, it protects the truth until the world is ready to embrace it.

05/06/2026

OTD May 6, 2007, Keith Plessy and I met for the 2nd or 3rd time at the Louisiana Supreme Court for the opening of a new exhibition on the Plessy v. Ferguson case. This is a cherished memory for us. We are with Keith Plessy's brother, Paul Plessy, now deceased and La Supreme Ct Justice, Bernette Johnson, and Keith Weldon Medley who introduced us to each other in 2004. Keith Weldon Medley died in 2024, but his passion and approach to history guides us today.

05/06/2026

There is still time to donate! Here is the link to our Give NOLA Day page. https://mtyc.co/o81mdg

FYI, our next marker, will be unveiled in November, 2026,.It will honor Marie Justine Cirnaire Couvent and the Catholic Orphan Institute, the first community school for free Black children in the Deep South. We partnered with The Historic New Orleans Collection, University of New Orleans and other community partners. You will be fascinated by this history.

05/05/2026

Give today to help PFI place permanent markers that protect New Orleans’ Black history from being erased, distorted, or forgotten.


Reconstruction Era National Historical Park Monument Lab
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05/01/2026

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais is more than a redistricting decision. It is a blow to the Voting Rights Act — and to the promise of Reconstruction.

New Orleans knows this history.

In the 1890s, the Citizens’ Committee of New Orleans fought to hold the Reconstruction Amendments as the law of the land. Their fight became *Plessy v. Ferguson*. Though the Court failed them in 1896, their vision was clear: citizenship must mean equal protection, political voice, and full participation in democracy.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created because the promises of Reconstruction had been denied for nearly a century through poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, racial gerrymandering, and vote dilution.

To weaken the Voting Rights Act is to weaken the nation’s ability to enforce Reconstruction itself.

The past is not safely behind us when its consequences are still written into law, public memory, and political power.

We remember the fight of the Citizens’ Committee. We defend the promise of the Reconstruction Amendments. We stand for voting rights and full citizenship for all.

New Orleans remembers. And we will not be silent.

05/01/2026

Justice Kagan | Louisiana v. Callais | 6-3 decision | April 29, 2026

130 years ago this month, Justice John Marshall Harlan's solitary dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) stands as one of the most powerful examples of principled decisions in American legal history. While the Supreme Court majority upheld racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine, Harlan argued forcefully that "our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens."

04/30/2026

Historian's take in Bloomberg Opinion piece. The Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is not like Dred Scott, it's more like Plessy (130 years ago, May 18). SCOTUS is intent on dismantling the second reconstruction of American democracy like its 19th century predecessor did with the first.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-04-29/supreme-court-s-voting-rights-act-ruling-will-re-create-racial-injustice?embedded-checkout=true&utm_id=97757_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1dennhb6gunov&fbclid=IwY2xjawRgSGZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFNMmJNa2p3ekZxWjZwTW03c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHqfyKVnuPHFdaTI_kbUGMSgmdYS9EtALT-tvbURyvXCwpNfJ5zIen6wkPmBN_aem_d5pRkR4jC4HeAF9Ph7d8lA

The Supreme Court’s decision further eviscerating the Voting Rights Act will enable a systematic disenfranchisement of minority voters that echoes the darkest moments in America’s racial history.

04/30/2026

The Voting Rights Act ended 150 years of Jim Crow and finally gave truth to the 15th Amendment. In a democracy, the faith of the people is born of a belief that they can participate in its processes and benefit from its success. Today’s cruel ruling on Louisiana v. Callais guts what was left of the Voting Rights Act and sets us farther on the path to authoritarianism — aided and abetted by the Supreme Court. Through intentional decisions that have chipped away at democracy’s guardrails, we are returning to the before-times when voters of color were silenced before a single vote was cast. ~ Stacey Abrams, 04.29.2026

Organize! Resist! Dissent! Vote!

03/29/2026

What a day in New Orleans at the NO KINGS rally.

02/04/2026

On February 3, 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This landmark addition declared that no citizen's right to vote could be "denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." For the first time in United States history, the nation's founding document explicitly protected voting rights regardless of race, strengthening democratic participation and expanding the promise of We the People.