Separate: The Story of Plessy V. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation
Separate is a myth-shattering narrative of one of the most consequential Supreme Court cases of the nineteenth century, Plessy v. Ferguson. The 1896 ruling embraced racial segregation, and its reverberations are still felt today. Drawing on letters, diaries, and archival collections, Steve Luxenberg reveals the origins of racial separation and its pernicious grip on American life. He tells the story through the lives of the people caught up in the case: Louis Martinet, who led the resisters from the mixed-race community of French New Orleans; Albion Tourgée, a best-selling author and the country's best-known white advocate for civil rights; Justice Henry Billings Brown, from antislavery New England, whose majority ruling sanctioned separation; Justice John Harlan, the Southerner from a slaveholding family whose singular dissent cemented his reputation as a steadfast voice for justice. Sweeping, swiftly paced, and richly detailed, Separate is an urgently needed exploration of our nation's most devastating divide.
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Become an affiliateDeeply researched, and it wears its learning lightly.--Louis Menand
A striking view of Reconstruction and of the tragic stillbirth of freedom in that era.--Charles S. Dameron
Luxenberg gives a three-dimensional and almost novelistic treatment to the players involved, drawing on diaries, letters and archival research.--Joumana Khatib
An ambitious and deeply researched nonfiction account.... [Luxenberg] draws on letters, diaries and archival collections to bring the true story to life.--Suzanne Van Atten
Separate vividly tells the story of how far our country had to go to repudiate its commitments to a racial double standard.--David Cole