Fighting SegregationImagine living in a country governed by segregation laws. In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring separate but equal accommodations for white Americans and African Americans on intrastate railroads was constitutional. In the case Plessy v. Ferguson, Homer Plessy could pass for a white man even though he is legally considered “colored” under Louisiana law. This is due to the fact that he has one-eighth African blood in him, which allowed Louisiana law to prevent him from sitting in a whites-only passenger car. The majority decision allowed states to declare their own requirements, which brand a person as “colored.” The argument put forward by Tourgée, Plessy's lawyer, was that belonging to one race or another was a form of property and to deny reputation to that race is considered taking property without due process of law. After the case a single justice, Justice Harlan, wrote the dissent to the majority's decision that the racial classifications were not inherently unconstitutional. In his dissent, Harlan opposes the majority's decision by sticking to the written words of the Constitution and not imposing his sense of the natural order into the document. Ultimately, Harlan's counterargument reveals that segregation laws are inconsistent with the Constitution. According to Brook Thomas, the only way to overcome a law created to base racism not just on skin color, but now the percentage of black blood an individual has is education. By stating this, he is trying to show the difference between separate but equal arrangements for education between "whites" and "coloreds", and how it is created... middle of paper... before the state should enact laws based on race or class. After proving that the majority's decision was inconsistent with the spirit of the republic, Harlan was able to single-handedly overturn the decision in the case and prevent segregation from becoming a slippery slope to racism. This dissent helped reinforce the fact that belonging to one race or another was a form of property, and denying reputation to that race is considered taking property without due process of law. All in all, however, Harlan managed to demonstrate with his counterargument that the majority's decision was unconstitutional. Work cited Thomas, Brook. Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford, 1997. Print.Harlan, John, Ii. Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford, 1997. Print.