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The Tumultuous Path From Emancipation to Segregation The Tumultuous Path From Emancipation to Segregation
(about 4 hours later)
SEPARATE The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey From Slavery to Segregation By Steve LuxenbergSEPARATE The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey From Slavery to Segregation By Steve Luxenberg
In the spring of 1890, Albion Tourgée, who had fought for the Union in the United States Army and then against the Ku Klux Klan as a Reconstruction judge, received an invitation to address a conference in upstate New York on the “Negro Question” hosted by the Quaker philanthropist Albert Smiley. Tourgée was an ideal choice: He had remained engaged in the struggle for equality long after many white people had lost interest. But as Steve Luxenberg shows in “Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Feruguson, and America’s Journey From Slavery to Segregation,” Tourgée was tempted to stay home. Longtime allies were boycotting the conference, with the encouragement of black newspaper editors and activists. In the spring of 1890, Albion Tourgée, who had fought for the Union in the United States Army and then against the Ku Klux Klan as a Reconstruction judge, received an invitation to address a conference in upstate New York on the “Negro Question” hosted by the Quaker philanthropist Albert Smiley. Tourgée was an ideal choice: He had remained engaged in the struggle for equality long after many white people had lost interest. But as Steve Luxenberg shows in “Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey From Slavery to Segregation,” Tourgée was tempted to stay home. Longtime allies were boycotting the conference, with the encouragement of black newspaper editors and activists.
Their complaint was simple: Not a single “Negro” had been invited. Yet in response to the protest, organizers doubled down. “A patient is not invited to the consultation of the doctors on his case,” Lyman Abbott wrote in The Christian Union.Their complaint was simple: Not a single “Negro” had been invited. Yet in response to the protest, organizers doubled down. “A patient is not invited to the consultation of the doctors on his case,” Lyman Abbott wrote in The Christian Union.
Tourgée attended and lectured a roomful of liberal reformers, educators and clergymen for over an hour. He celebrated the progress freedmen had made since emancipation, wondered if the churches had forgotten who Christ was and what he stood for, and criticized the presumption of the guest list: “We have sought testimony about the Negro from his avowed friends and confessed enemies, and think we shall obtain the truth by ‘splitting the difference’ between them. The testimony of the Negro in regard to his past and present conditions and aspirations for the future is worth more than that of all the white observers that can be packed upon the planet.”Tourgée attended and lectured a roomful of liberal reformers, educators and clergymen for over an hour. He celebrated the progress freedmen had made since emancipation, wondered if the churches had forgotten who Christ was and what he stood for, and criticized the presumption of the guest list: “We have sought testimony about the Negro from his avowed friends and confessed enemies, and think we shall obtain the truth by ‘splitting the difference’ between them. The testimony of the Negro in regard to his past and present conditions and aspirations for the future is worth more than that of all the white observers that can be packed upon the planet.”
This incident, which comes toward the end of Luxenberg’s absorbing book, is a valuable reminder of something easy to forget. Not that the North also had a race problem; no sentient American should be able to forget that. Rather, that in the century after Reconstruction, segregation was not the worst possible outcome for black people. There was also exclusion (not separate schools but no schools) and elimination. Thousands of African-Americans were murdered by lynching alone.This incident, which comes toward the end of Luxenberg’s absorbing book, is a valuable reminder of something easy to forget. Not that the North also had a race problem; no sentient American should be able to forget that. Rather, that in the century after Reconstruction, segregation was not the worst possible outcome for black people. There was also exclusion (not separate schools but no schools) and elimination. Thousands of African-Americans were murdered by lynching alone.
There is no escaping exclusion and elimination in a book about race in the United States, but Luxenberg’s focus is on the battle against segregation. He begins in Massachusetts in the 1840s with an abolitionist-led victory over Jim Crow cars on the railroads and ends 50 years later with two crushing defeats. In what came to be known as the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, the Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which had guaranteed equal access to public conveyances, accommodations, recreation and juries. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the court upheld a Louisiana law mandating separate railroad cars, thereby upholding the constitutionality of segregation. Luxenberg, a senior editor at The Washington Post and the author of “Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret,” braids brief narratives of legal battles together with intimate, cradle-to-grave portraits of three key figures in Plessy: John Marshall Harlan, Henry Billings Brown and Tourgée.There is no escaping exclusion and elimination in a book about race in the United States, but Luxenberg’s focus is on the battle against segregation. He begins in Massachusetts in the 1840s with an abolitionist-led victory over Jim Crow cars on the railroads and ends 50 years later with two crushing defeats. In what came to be known as the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, the Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which had guaranteed equal access to public conveyances, accommodations, recreation and juries. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the court upheld a Louisiana law mandating separate railroad cars, thereby upholding the constitutionality of segregation. Luxenberg, a senior editor at The Washington Post and the author of “Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret,” braids brief narratives of legal battles together with intimate, cradle-to-grave portraits of three key figures in Plessy: John Marshall Harlan, Henry Billings Brown and Tourgée.
Harlan was a slaveholding Kentucky lawyer and politician. In his first run for Congress he accused his Democratic opponent of being soft on the expansion of slavery in the territories. Harlan ultimately opposed secession and fought against the Confederacy, but he also opposed the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s re-election bid, and the 13th and 14th Amendments. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by Rutherford B. Hayes, who was eager to appoint a Southerner but feared that he could not get a nominee from farther south than Kentucky confirmed.Harlan was a slaveholding Kentucky lawyer and politician. In his first run for Congress he accused his Democratic opponent of being soft on the expansion of slavery in the territories. Harlan ultimately opposed secession and fought against the Confederacy, but he also opposed the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s re-election bid, and the 13th and 14th Amendments. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by Rutherford B. Hayes, who was eager to appoint a Southerner but feared that he could not get a nominee from farther south than Kentucky confirmed.
Brown was born in Massachusetts and attended both Yale and Harvard law schools (though he failed to obtain a degree from either). He practiced law in Michigan, specializing in Great Lakes shipping. Before a short stint as a district court judge in Memphis, he had barely touched Southern soil. Although Brown was no radical, while campaigning for General Grant he called the Democrats the party of slavery and the Klan. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by Benjamin Harrison in 1890, the same year that the Louisiana Legislature enacted a Separate Car Act, “to promote the comfort of passengers on railway trains.”Brown was born in Massachusetts and attended both Yale and Harvard law schools (though he failed to obtain a degree from either). He practiced law in Michigan, specializing in Great Lakes shipping. Before a short stint as a district court judge in Memphis, he had barely touched Southern soil. Although Brown was no radical, while campaigning for General Grant he called the Democrats the party of slavery and the Klan. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by Benjamin Harrison in 1890, the same year that the Louisiana Legislature enacted a Separate Car Act, “to promote the comfort of passengers on railway trains.”
Tourgée was an Ohioan who, as late as 1860, had teased his fiancée for her antislavery views. He was radicalized by the war and even more by his experience after it as a judge in North Carolina. Tourgée was not uncritical of Reconstruction — he called his best-selling novel based on his time in the South “A Fool’s Errand, by One of the Fools.” But he agreed with his black friends that Reconstruction’s failures followed not from Northern overreach but from timidity.Tourgée was an Ohioan who, as late as 1860, had teased his fiancée for her antislavery views. He was radicalized by the war and even more by his experience after it as a judge in North Carolina. Tourgée was not uncritical of Reconstruction — he called his best-selling novel based on his time in the South “A Fool’s Errand, by One of the Fools.” But he agreed with his black friends that Reconstruction’s failures followed not from Northern overreach but from timidity.
Tourgée took the case challenging Louisiana’s law on behalf of the Comité des Citoyens — black, white and Creole — led by the New Orleans newspaper editor Louis Martinet. Tourgée’s client, Homer Plessy, was a shoemaker with skin as light as Robert E. Lee’s. Tourgée argued in his brief to the Supreme Court that even if there were a clear and simple way to distinguish black from white, which there wasn’t, the law violated both the 13th and 14th Amendments, intended by Congress to make the Constitution “colorblind.”Tourgée took the case challenging Louisiana’s law on behalf of the Comité des Citoyens — black, white and Creole — led by the New Orleans newspaper editor Louis Martinet. Tourgée’s client, Homer Plessy, was a shoemaker with skin as light as Robert E. Lee’s. Tourgée argued in his brief to the Supreme Court that even if there were a clear and simple way to distinguish black from white, which there wasn’t, the law violated both the 13th and 14th Amendments, intended by Congress to make the Constitution “colorblind.”
Luxenberg’s history contains so many surprises, absurdities and ironies that it would be a shame to spoil the final chapters by revealing which justice ended up on which side. One, writing for the majority, mocked the idea that the law was a violation of the 13th Amendment and insisted that the 14th Amendment, whatever its legal objectives with respect to equality, could, “in the nature of things,” hardly have been intended “to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either.”Luxenberg’s history contains so many surprises, absurdities and ironies that it would be a shame to spoil the final chapters by revealing which justice ended up on which side. One, writing for the majority, mocked the idea that the law was a violation of the 13th Amendment and insisted that the 14th Amendment, whatever its legal objectives with respect to equality, could, “in the nature of things,” hardly have been intended “to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either.”
The other justice, alone in his dissent, conceded that the white race was dominant and likely to remain so. But, he argued, when it comes to the law, there is “no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” He predicted, correctly, that segregation laws would increase race hatred and that the decision would in time prove to be as pernicious as Dred Scott.The other justice, alone in his dissent, conceded that the white race was dominant and likely to remain so. But, he argued, when it comes to the law, there is “no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” He predicted, correctly, that segregation laws would increase race hatred and that the decision would in time prove to be as pernicious as Dred Scott.
Along with the court cases and the three lovingly researched lives, Luxenberg devotes many lively and illuminating pages to race and politics in New Orleans. That’s a lot for one book. Still, the subtitle of “Separate” is misleading. Only the last section is about Plessy, and the book is not the story of “America’s journey from slavery to segregation.”Along with the court cases and the three lovingly researched lives, Luxenberg devotes many lively and illuminating pages to race and politics in New Orleans. That’s a lot for one book. Still, the subtitle of “Separate” is misleading. Only the last section is about Plessy, and the book is not the story of “America’s journey from slavery to segregation.”
In fact, there was no such journey. There was slavery and segregation in antebellum Southern cities, just as there was segregation in the antebellum North. After emancipation, there was freedom and segregation (and exclusion and elimination).In fact, there was no such journey. There was slavery and segregation in antebellum Southern cities, just as there was segregation in the antebellum North. After emancipation, there was freedom and segregation (and exclusion and elimination).
The subtitle is also misleading because separate and unequal extended far beyond transportation and accommodations to education, employment, health care, credit, housing and criminal justice. Understanding the rash of late-19th-century segregation laws, like the rash of disfranchisement laws, means asking questions about who wanted them and why. For answers, historians have looked at the efforts (often those of liberals and progressives) to contain the explosive mixture of race, gender and political conflict in growing Southern cities; the emergence of the black middle class and the entry of black women into politics; the Woman Suffrage Movement; the Populist Movement; the determination of black people to hold on to the rights and power they gained during Reconstruction; and the determination of white people to take those rights and that power away.The subtitle is also misleading because separate and unequal extended far beyond transportation and accommodations to education, employment, health care, credit, housing and criminal justice. Understanding the rash of late-19th-century segregation laws, like the rash of disfranchisement laws, means asking questions about who wanted them and why. For answers, historians have looked at the efforts (often those of liberals and progressives) to contain the explosive mixture of race, gender and political conflict in growing Southern cities; the emergence of the black middle class and the entry of black women into politics; the Woman Suffrage Movement; the Populist Movement; the determination of black people to hold on to the rights and power they gained during Reconstruction; and the determination of white people to take those rights and that power away.
Segregation is not one story but many. Luxenberg has written his with energy, elegance and a heart aching for a world without it.Segregation is not one story but many. Luxenberg has written his with energy, elegance and a heart aching for a world without it.