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Regular Session, 2010
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 93
BY REPRESENTATIVE RICHMOND
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans to designate
the St. Claude Avenue Bridge as the "Homer Plessy Bridge".
WHEREAS, Homer Plessy, petitioner in the United States Supreme Court case
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 16 S.Ct. 1138, 41 L.Ed 256 (1896), was born on March
17, 1862, in New Orleans, Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, Plessy married Louise Bordenave in 1888, and the couple made their
home on North Claiborne in the Treme Section of New Orleans; and
WHEREAS, Plessy made his living as a shoemaker at Patricio Brito's shoemaking
business on Dumaine Street near North Rampart; and
WHEREAS, in the late nineteenth century, Louisiana required railroads to provide
separate cars for African-American passengers; and
WHEREAS, Plessy was one-eighth black and seven-eighths white; under
Louisiana state law he was classified as an African-American and thus required to sit in
"colored" cars; and
WHEREAS, in reaction to this requirement, the Citizens' Committee to Test the
Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law was established to implement organized
protest; and
WHEREAS, part of the organization's protest was for an African-American to
deliberately violate the Louisiana Separate Car Law so that the case might then be tried
in federal court where it was hoped that the court would find that the Louisiana law
violated the 13th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution; and
WHEREAS, On June 27, 1892, Plessy went to the Press Street Station in New
Orleans and bought a ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad to Covington and boarded the
train where he sat in the "whites only" car; and ENROLLEDHR NO. 93
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WHEREAS, Plessy refused to move to the "colored car" and was arrested; and
WHEREAS, as a result, Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 16 S.Ct. 1138, 41 L.Ed
256 (1896), eventually was heard by the United States Supreme Court in April 1896, and
resulted in the "separate but equal" doctrine that tragically allowed for separate but in fact
unequal accommodations for African-Americans for decades; and
WHEREAS, designating the St. Claude Avenue Bridge as the "Homer Plessy
Bridge" would serve as a fitting reminder of the New Orleans native who stood up to
inequities in the face of great challenges.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby urge and request the Board of Commissioners of
the Port of New Orleans to designate the St. Claude Avenue Bridge over the Inner Harbor
Navigation Canal as the "Homer Plessy Bridge" and to erect appropriate signage
reflecting that designation.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATI VES