"Plessy vs.Ferguson"(May 18,1896)

The Plessy case grew out of a careful strategy to test the legality of a
Louisiana law passed in 1890 that required railroads to maintain
separate train cars for African-American & whitesIn September 1891,
group of African Americans in New-Orlens,Louisiana formed "The Citizens
Committee to test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law," and raised
$3,000 to mount a formal challenge to segregation in Louisiana
Albion Tourgee then the best-known white advocate of African American legal
rights,agreed to argue the case for free of charge.
In June 1892,Homer Adolph Plessy bought a first-class street ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad and sat in the car designated for whites only.Homer was of mixed African & European ancestry ,and he looked white.The citizen's Committee wanted to challenge the segregation law in court,so it alerted railroad offcials that Homer would be sitting in the whites only car,although
he was partly of African descent.He was arrested and brought to court for arraignment  before Judge Howard Ferguson of the U.S.District Court in
Loisiana.Homer then then attempted to halt the trial
by suing John because the segregation law was unconstitutional.This set up the legal question argued and won four years later in Plessy vs.Ferguson.