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| | Louisiana Purchase |
 | | In March 1892, Homer Adolph Plessy, a light-skinned New Orleans fl man who was actively involved in the civil rights movement, purchased a ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad, sat in a whites-only coach, and refused to move. |
 | | In the criminal suit that resulted, Judge John H. Ferguson upheld Louisiana's segregation law, and Plessy appealed the ruling to the Louisiana State Supreme Court, housed in the Cabildo, which also ruled against Plessy, stating that his rights had not been violated. |
 | | When the United States Supreme Court decided the case in 1896, they upheld the state's ruling in favor of Ferguson, thereby sanctioning the doctrine of "separate but equal" and legalizing segregation in the United States for more than the next fifty years. |
| lsm.crt.state.la.us /cabildo/cab4.htm (1570 words) |
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