Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Plessy v. Ferguson is one of the most compelling cases of the nineteenth century: its outcome embraced and protected segregation, and its reverberations are still felt into the twenty-first. Award-winning author Steve Luxenberg draws from letters, diaries, and archival collections to tell the story through the eyes of the people caught up in the case. Sweeping, swiftly paced, and richly detailed, Separate provides an urgently needed exploration of our nation's most devastating divide.
"Dazzlingly well- reported. . . . An eye- opening journey through some of the darkest passages and haunting corridors of American history." -- Terence Samuel, NPR
"Reminds us that our history is not simply a narrative of greater and greater freedom." -- Eric Foner, Washington Post
"A fresh way to tell the story. . . . Separate is deeply researched, and it wears its learning lightly." -- Louis Menand, The New Yorker
Synopsis
Separate 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 Tourg e, 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.