The Journey to Separate but Equal

Madame Decuir's Quest for Racial Justice in the Reconstruction Era

Jack M. Beermann

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780700634200, 9780700631834
• eBook ISBN: 9780700631841
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

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 Decuir’s 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 Court’s adoption of “separate but equal” in Plessy v. Ferguson.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Louisiana’s Gens de Couleur and the Decuir and Dubuclet Families
• 2 Madame Decuir Returns from France and Hires New Lawyers
• 3 Madame Decuir’s Journey and Reconstruction
• 4 Madame Decuir’s Suit against Captain Benson
• 5 Judge Collum Decides
• 6 The Louisiana Supreme Court Affirms
• 7 Captain Benson Takes His Case to the US Supreme Court
• 8 Louisiana (and the Entire South) Redeemed
• 9 The Supreme Court Decides
• 10 The Completion of the Law’s Journey to “Equal, but Separate,”
• Epilogue
• Appendix: The Commerce Clause
• Notes
• Index
• Back Cover