Plessy v. Ferguson goes the other way

Most of the SCOTUS appointees could be changed with a POD in 1884 or even 1888. Keep Republicans in the WH (Josiah Lawrence Chamberlain is a personal favorite of mine to walk to the Oval Office).

What would be the reactions? I'd imagine since the South told the 14th and 15th Amendments to go to hell nothing will change immediately unless the President decides to forcibly desegregate (which I can't imagine any President doing), but could this possibly result in desegregation either slowly or a generation earlier (especially Wilson is gone too)? A slow, decades long desegregation process would be rather interesting IMO.
 
Whoops, wrong thread >.>
Although I suppose it could be here since most of the affects would be after 1900
 
It depends partly on whether the court only rules on this case or makes a broad, sweeping ruling.

They *could* rule that the law is unconstitutional for reasons other than just outlawing discrimination. For instance, they could write a ruling that says, "The law in question should not have been used against this particular person because..." That seems a little more likely than broad, sweeping rulings.

That said, if we get one - or if the law is never passed (the latter is the situation in "Brotherhood and Baseball") - you still are going to have the South saying what Andrew Jackson said 60+ years earlier: "He made his ruling, now let's see him enforce it."

Most likely, segregation goes from de jurie to just de factor in the South. You might get slower, earlier integration, as in BaB, but it's still going to be a very slow process. And even mine has a POD back in 1863, which means just having Joshua Chamberlain (or Garfield in the new "Stalwart of the Stalwarts TL?) select some other justices won't make it come that much better.

What I think the races need, though, for society to accept integration is for them to be together and see there's no harm in it, that the other races are just normal people like them. That's why it happens slowly in BaB, among other things. So, allowing integrated transportation may help it go smoother once it does start.

The questin is, will it only go smoother in Louisiana itself.
 
It depends partly on whether the court only rules on this case or makes a broad, sweeping ruling.

They *could* rule that the law is unconstitutional for reasons other than just outlawing discrimination. For instance, they could write a ruling that says, "The law in question should not have been used against this particular person because..." That seems a little more likely than broad, sweeping rulings.
That strikes me as depressingly likely; Plessey was 7/8 white, so the Supreme Court could easily just rule that segregation laws should not have applied to him. I suppose that could at least set a legal precedent for undermining the One Drop Rule, though.

That said, if we get one - or if the law is never passed (the latter is the situation in "Brotherhood and Baseball") - you still are going to have the South saying what Andrew Jackson said 60+ years earlier: "He made his ruling, now let's see him enforce it."

Most likely, segregation goes from de jurie to just de factor in the South. You might get slower, earlier integration, as in BaB, but it's still going to be a very slow process. And even mine has a POD back in 1863, which means just having Joshua Chamberlain (or Garfield in the new "Stalwart of the Stalwarts TL?) select some other justices won't make it come that much better.
Also depressingly likely; if segregation were struck down, the South would just find some other method of legislating/enforcing racial inequality. After all, the Jim Crow laws only sprang up after the Black Codes were tossed out. Unless you get a federal government seriously devoted to fighting tooth and nail for civil rights, the South will just find a loophole in the ruling and keep doing as it pleases.
 
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