Editing Plessy v. Ferguson (section)

===Legal background and incident===
In 1890, the [[Louisiana State Legislature]] passed a law called the [[Separate Car Act]], which required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on Louisiana railroads.<ref name="credoreference1">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/jhueas/plessy_v_ferguson|title=Plessy v. Ferguson|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of American Studies|date=2010|access-date=December 22, 2012|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The law required passenger train officers to "assign each passenger to the coach or compartment used for the race to which such passenger belongs". It also made it a [[misdemeanor]] for any passenger to "insist on going into a coach or compartment to which by race he does not belong," punishable by either a $25 fine or up to 20 days in prison.

A group of prominent black, [[Louisiana Creole people|creole of color]], and white creole [[New Orleans]] residents formed a civil rights group called the [[Comité des Citoyens]] (Committee of Citizens). The group was dedicated to repealing the Separate Car Act and fighting its implementation.<ref name=freemen>{{Cite book|last=Medley|first=Keith Weldon|title=We As Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson: The Fight Against Legal Segregation|publisher=[[Pelican Publishing Company]]|year=2003|url=https://archive.org/details/weasfreemenpless00medl|isbn=978-1-58980-120-2|access-date=May 1, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304180142/http://www.pelicanpub.com/PDF/1589801202-fm.pdf|archive-date=March 4, 2009}}</ref> The Comité eventually persuaded [[Homer Plessy]], a man of [[mixed race]] who was an "[[octoroon]]" (person of seven-eighths white and one-eighth black ancestry), to participate in an orchestrated [[test case (law)|test case]] to challenge the Act. Plessy had been born a free man and was fair-skinned. However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Koffi N|first=Maglo|title=GENOMICS AND THE CONUNDRUM OF RACE: some epistemic and ethical considerations |journal=Perspectives in Biology and Medicine |volume=53 |issue=3 |date=Summer 2010 |id={{ProQuest|733078852}}}}</ref>

On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket at the Press Street Depot and boarded a "Whites Only" car of the [[East Louisiana Railroad]] in New Orleans, Louisiana, bound for [[Covington, Louisiana]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Plessy v. Ferguson (No. 210)|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0163_0537_ZS.html|publisher=Legal Information Institute|access-date=October 4, 2011}}</ref> The railroad company, which had opposed the law on the grounds that it would require the purchase of more railcars, had been previously informed of Plessy's [[Race (human categorization)|racial]] lineage, and the intent to challenge the law.<ref name=plessy&ferg/> Additionally, the Comité des Citoyens hired a private detective with arrest powers to detain Plessy, to ensure that he would be charged for violating the Separate Car Act, as opposed to vagrancy or some other offense.<ref name=plessy&ferg/> After Plessy took a seat in the whites-only railway car, he was asked to vacate it, and sit instead in the blacks-only car. Plessy refused and was arrested immediately by the detective.<ref>{{cite web|title=Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/landmark_plessy.html|publisher=PBS|access-date=October 5, 2011}}</ref> As planned, the train was stopped, and Plessy was taken off the train at Press and Royal streets.<ref name=plessy&ferg/> Plessy was remanded for trial in Orleans Parish.<ref name=Opinion>{{ussc|name=Plessy v. Ferguson|163|537|1896}}.</ref>