The Journey to Separate but Equal: Madame DeCuir's Quest for Racial Justice in the Reconstruction Era
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In The Journey to Separate but Equal: Madame Decuir’s Quest for Racial Justice in the Reconstruction Era, Jack Beermann tells the story of how, in Hall v. Decuir, the post–Civil War US Supreme Court took its first step toward perpetuating the subjugation of the non-White population of the United States by actively preventing a Southern state from prohibiting segregation on a riverboat in the coasting trade on the Mississippi River. The Journey to Separate but Equal offers the first complete exploration of Hall v. Decuir, with an in-depth look at the case’s record; the lives of the parties, lawyers, and judges; and the case’s social context in 1870s Louisiana. The book centers around the remarkable story of Madame Josephine Decuir and the lawsuit she pursued because she had been illegally barred from the cabin reserved for White women on the Governor Allen riverboat.
The drama of Madame Decuir’s fight against segregation’s denial of her dignity as a human and particularly as a woman enriches our understanding of the Reconstruction era, especially in Louisiana, including political and legal changes that occurred during that time and the plight of people of color who were freed from slavery but denied their dignity and rights as American citizens. Hall v. Decuir spanned the pivotal period of 1872–1878, during which White segregationist Democrats “redeemed” the South from Republican control. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Hall overturned the application of an 1869 Louisiana statute prohibiting racial segregation in Madame Decuirs case because of the status of the Mississippi River as a mode of interstate commerce. The decision represents a crucial precedent that established the legal groundwork for the entrenchment of Jim Crow in the law of the United States, leading directly to the Courts adoption of separate but equal in Plessy v. Ferguson.
ISBN
9780700631834
Publication Date
2021
Publisher
University Press of Kansas
City
Lawrence
Keywords
race discrimination, law and legislation, 19th century, equality before the law, history, race discrimination, Louisiana, civil rights, reconstruction, race relations, Plessy v. Ferguson, African Americans
Disciplines
Civil Rights and Discrimination | History | Law | Legislation
Recommended Citation
Beermann, Jack M., "The Journey to Separate but Equal: Madame DeCuir's Quest for Racial Justice in the Reconstruction Era" (2021). Books. 267.
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/books/267
