Louisiana's governor has posthumously pardoned Homer Plessy over a century after he was arrested for boarding a 'whites-only' train car — a case that led the Supreme Court to uphold state racial segregation laws.
In early 1897, Plessy pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined. He died in 1925.Wednesday's pardon took place in a spot near where Plessy was arrested. Relatives of Plessy, as well as those John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw the case against him, were in attendance."I'm holding back tears, y'all. I feel like my feet are not touching the ground today because the ancestors are carrying me," said Keith Plessy, a relative of Plessy.
"It was important that the office that prosecuted Homer Plessy be the office that asked for his name to be pardoned," said New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams. "Homer Plessy was not a criminal. He was then and is now a hero."
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