The name of the organization that funded Plessy's legal fight was Comité des Citoyens, or Committee of Citizens in English.
Although Plessy was considered black or colored at the time, like many residents of New Orleans he was racially mixed and only of about 1/8 African ancestry.
Homer Plessy was born a "free person of color," as his parents were creoles refugees from Haiti who fled the violence of the revolution in that country and the persecution creoles often faced at the hands of the black majority.
Since Plessy could have, and often did "pass" as white, the Committee of Citizens announced ahead of time what they were doing and hired detective to make the arrest.
Although the Supreme Court ruled that any segregated facilities should be of equal quality, black facilities were usually inferior and there was never any enforcement to make sure they were equal.
The majority opinion was written by Justice Henry Billings Brown.
Justice John Marshal Harlan was the lone dissenter and although he believed in a colorblind constitution and equal political rights for black Americans, he took a paternalistic attitude toward race that was popular at the time, writing in his dissent: "The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. . . I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time if it remains true to its great heritage and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty."
Despite being a landmark decision with far-ranging ramifications that affected the United States for decades, Plessy v. Ferguson attracted little media or scholarly attention when it was issued.
Plessy died on March 1, 1925 in Metairie, Louisiana at the age of sixty-two.
Although Plessy v. Ferguson was never officially overturned by the Supreme Court, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954) essentially ruled that racial segregation was unconstitutional.
