The First Posthumous Pardon in Louisiana History
Last week, Louisiana civil rights activist Homer Plessy received a gubernatorial pardon for a conviction in 1892. The pardon was the first of its kind in Louisiana’s history because it was granted after Plessy’s death. It is symbolic for many reasons. For one, it brings resolution to the arrest that led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling that validated segregationist policies across the United States for more than a century. It also brings relief to Plessy’s descendants and presents possibilities for other people–living and dead–to have their names cleared and their legacies altered for the greater good.
Plessy was a young, civically engaged Louisianan. He was a free man who had experienced life in integration. When Louisiana began to institute segregationist laws that mandated that colored and white citizens eat, drink, travel, and learn separately, Plessy and other members of the Comité des Citoyens (Citizens Committee) sought to challenge their legality. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class ticket in the whites-only section of a Louisiana train. When he declined to sit in the colored section, he was arrested and fined. His case went before the Supreme Court, which held that the “separate, but equal” race-based segregation was legal under the U.S. Constitution. The case set a precedent for other Southern states to enact similar–if not worse–policies.
Plessy’s posthumous pardon is the latest from a painful era in U.S. history. In August 2021, The Martinsville Seven received posthumous pardon by the Virginia governor for allegedly raping a white woman in 1949. These seven young Black men had been tried by an all-white jury and sentenced to electrocution within eight days of trial. Posthumous pardons are newer and provide some sense of justice. They also introduce a large portion of the American public (and electorate) to the inequities embedded within the foundation of the United States. These pardons expose and heal our collective wounds, at once. They also serve as an expression of restorative justice.
What are your thoughts about pardons after death? Feel free to send a note to The Digest.