The Plessy case : a legal-historical interpretation / Charles A. Lofgren.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson upheld "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races" on all passenger railways within the state of Louisiana. In this account with implications for present-day America, Lofgren traces the roots of this landmark case in the post-Civil War South and pinpoints its moorings in the era's constitutional, legal, and intellectual doctrines. After reviewing de facto racial separation and the shift by southern states to legislated transportation segregation, he shows that the Fourteenth Amendment became a ready vehicle for legitimating classification by race. At the same time, scientists and social scientists were proclaiming black racial inferiority and lower courts were embracing separate-but-equal in ordinary law suits. Within this context, a group of New Orleans blacks launched a judicial challenge to Louisiana's 1890 Separate Car Law and carried the case to the Supreme Court, where the resulting opinions by Justices Henry Billings Brown and John Marshall Harlan pitted legal doctrines and "expert" opinion about race against the idea of a color-blind Constitution. Throughout his account, Lofgren probes the intellectual premises that shaped this important episode in the history of law and race in America--an episode that still raises troubling questions about racial classification and citizenship--revealing its dynamics and place in the continuum of legal change.

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Library Journal Review

Dealing with a landmark Supreme Court decision, Lofgren has written a monograph in the tradition of Anthony Lewis's Gideon's Trumpet . He explores Plessy v. Ferguson from Homer Plessy's challenge of Louisiana's separate-car law in 1892 to the High Court's affirmance of the separate-but-equal doctrine four years later. Lofgren also treats transportation segregation in the post-Civil War South, notably in Louisiana. He spreads his net widely, describing the legal and racial matrix that includes the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments, scientific racism, and America's overseas expansion. Carrying his study down to 1954 and Brown et al. , which sub silento overturned Plessy, Lofgren has added greatly to our knowledge of civil rights law. His study will interest all students of the subject. Milton Cantor, History Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

A specialist in both American politics and history, Lofgren is aptly suited to prepare this text, since it treats both political and historical issues. He has written a case study of the infamous 1896 Supreme Court decision that approved the separate-but-equal doctrine and put the legal stamp of inferiority on black Americans. Such a case study may be compared with Alan F. Westin's Anatomy of a Constitutional Law Case (1958) and Anthony Lewis's Gideon's Trumpet (CH, Sep '64), although this is written on a higher scholarly level. In this study Lofgren examines the roots of the Plessy case, shows how they are intertwined with the intellectual and legal dogmas of the 19th century, and discusses the impact of the case on race relations in this century. Well-written and scholarly; recommended for undergraduate and graduate students.-R.A. Carp, University of Houston

Kirkus Book Review

A new look at the famous ""separate-but-equal"" Plessy case that aligned the Supreme Court with the forces of segregation for 58 years before the 1954 Warren Court turned the tide. Historian Lofgren seeks to place the Plessy case into its historical context, particularly by examining the ""scientific"" racism of the 1890's. The decision was reported on page three of the next day's New York Times, sandwiched between other railway news. With such indifference was the case greeted. Lofgren records how popular and scientific opinion concluded that racial separation was reasonable in that it helped to maintain public health, morals, and welfare. This opinion was broadly based upon six propositions: 1) blacks are significantly different from whites; 2) the difference militates towards black moral and mental inferiority; 3) one can only expect a glacier-like change in this condition; 4) race mixing is deleterious to both races and ends in producing an inferior hybrid; 5) race antipathy is inevitable; and 6) an integrated society is impractical. The ""separate-but-equal"" pronouncement seemed a logical outcome of this mind-set. Ironically, the influence of Plessey was far-reaching, not so much in its negativity, but insofar as much of the decision in the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka School Board case was, ultimately, based upon the impassioned dissent of Justice Harlan in the Plessy case. A close, valuable look at a crucial bit of history. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.