Homer Plessy was arrested in 1890 for violating Louisiana's Separate Car Act. This law required racially segregated seating on public trains, with separate cars designated for white and non-white passengers. Plessy, who was 7/8 white and 1/8 black, intentionally boarded a "whites-only" train car and refused to move to the designated "colored" car. As a result, he was arrested and charged with violating the Separate Car Act. This incident eventually led to the landmark Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, in 1896, where the "separate but equal" doctrine was established.
