Editing Plessy v. Ferguson (section)

===Supreme Court appeal===
Undaunted, the Committee appealed to the United States Supreme Court.<ref name="jstor1973"/> Two legal briefs were submitted on Plessy's behalf. One was signed by [[Albion W. Tourgée]] and James C. Walker and the other by [[Samuel F. Phillips]] and his legal partner F. D. McKenney. Oral arguments were held before the Supreme Court on April 13, 1896. Tourgée and Phillips appeared in the courtroom to speak on behalf of Plessy.<ref name=Opinion/>
Tourgée built his case upon violation of Plessy's rights under the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|13th Amendment]], prohibiting slavery, and the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]], which states "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Tourgée argued that the reputation of being a black man was "property", which, by the law, implied the inferiority of African Americans as compared to whites.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gordon |first1=Milton M. |title=Enforcing Racial Segregation; It Is Viewed as Violating the Rights of All Americans |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1954/01/03/archives/enforcing-racial-segregation-it-is-viewed-as-violating-the-rights.html |work=The New York Times |date=3 January 1954 }}</ref> The state legal brief was prepared by [[Attorney General of Louisiana|Attorney General]] [[Milton Joseph Cunningham]] of [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]] and New Orleans. Cunningham was a staunch supporter of [[white supremacy]], who according to a laudatory 1916 obituary "worked so effectively [during Reconstruction] in restoring white supremacy in politics that he finally was arrested, with fifty-one other men of that community, and tried by federal officials."<ref>{{cite news|title=Milton Joseph Cunningham, Obituary|work=Times Picayune|date=October 20, 1916}}, cited in {{cite web|url=http://www.genealogy.com/users/m/e/t/Mildred-Methvin/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0108.html|title=Milton Joseph Cunningham|publisher=genealogy.com|author=Mimi Methvin McManus|date=May 29, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006092257/http://www.genealogy.com/users/m/e/t/Mildred-Methvin/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0108.html|archive-date=October 6, 2014|access-date=October 2, 2014}}</ref>