Plessy as “Passing

Judicial Responses to Ambiguously Raced Bodies in Plessy v. Ferguson

Bibliographic Data

ID7328562
AuthorsMark Golub (Scripps College, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume39
Issue3
Pages563-600
Publication date2005-08-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1540-5893.2005.00234.x
OpenAlexW2056555714
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited61

The Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) is infamous for its doctrine of “separate but equal,” which gave constitutional legitimacy to Jim Crow segregation laws. What is less-known about the case is that the appellant Homer Plessy was, by all appearances, a white man. In the language of the Court, his “one-eighth African blood” was “not discernible in him.” This article analyzes Plessy as a story of racial “passing.” The existence of growing interracial populations in the nineteenth century created difficulties for legislation designed to enforce the separation of the races. Courts were increasingly called upon to determine the racial identity of particular individuals. Seen as a judicial response to racial ambiguity, Plessy demonstrates the law's role not only in the treatment of racial groups, but also in the construction and maintenance of racial categories

Ambiguity · Biology · Doctrine · Equal Protection Clause · Identity (music · Legislation · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Separate but equal · Sociology · Supreme court · White (mutation · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Genetics · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society

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