Plessy was a citizen who claimed to be seventh eights Caucasian and only one eighth Black. He was imprisoned and trial in a criminal court after an incident that took place while in New Orleans, in 1896, when he tried to board a car designated for hite people. He was denied a seat in the car for white people and urged to take a seat in the car for black people. As Plessy refused on the basis of his predominantly Caucasian race, the train staff arrested him, and then he was put in the parish jail. He was charged with criminal counts, but Plessy requested his case to be presented to the Supreme Court for he deemed there had been violations of the Thirteen and Fourteenth Amendments (abolition of slavery and equal treatment).
The Supreme Court's opinion stated that the treatment based on "equal but separated" did not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, for this amendment only protected citizens from being enslaved or forced to involuntary servitude, and no conflict was found with the Fourteenth Amendment since it enforced equality, but it did not specify under which terms. Therefore, the decision of the Supreme Court supported the doctrine "equal but separate" and segregation as well.
Becoming a Muslism was a way to accept a new political reality, opening the door to adaptation and avoiding repression and punishment . It was pragmatism.
