Your donation supports the Plessy & Ferguson Initiative’s continuing work to help mend the damage caused by the ‘separate but equal decision’ which denied African Americans’ access to quality education, public accommodations, and full participation as U.S. citizens for generations.

133 Years of History

Plessy v. Ferguson was a lawsuit that began when Homer Plessy boarded the whites only section of a Louisiana railroad car in 1892 in a carefully planned act of civil disobedience. The case ended with the 1896 Supreme Court decision that stated that "separate but equal" was acceptable under the Constitution, underpinning Jim Crow laws; a precedent that remained in force until the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. But the struggle for equal rights continues today.

15 Years of Service

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, are descendants from each side of the historic court case. Now as partners in history, they work together to carry the torch of their shared legacies in the fight for equal rights.

For 15 years, we have created public programs on Black history, race and reconciliation and advocated for equity in our public schools. The Initiative created the Historical Marker Project that places historical markers honoring African American achievement and resistance in New Orleans.

8 Historical Markers

We work with our community partners across the city to highlight important sites of African American history in New Orleans that make up our emerging Reconstruction Civil Rights trail.

Historical markers commemorating black history in New Orleans include, Plessy v. Ferguson, McDonogh 19 Elementary School, Valena C. Jones Elementary School, the Pythian Temple, and Straight University, New Orleans Massacre of 1866, North Claiborne Ave. Dorothy Mae Taylor, as well as other memorializations around the city.