Liberty Under Law

For our 2022 Constitution Day commemoration, the Robert H. Jackson Center hosted Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson to share how they have come together to advance justice. Keith and Phoebe are the descendants of the named parties in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case that codified the separate but equal doctrine, until that was overturned in 1954 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (The 69th anniversary of that decision was marked on May 17, 2023.)Keith M. Plessy is a New Orleans native and is the great grandson of Gustave Plessy – Homer Plessy’s first cousin. He is co-founder and President of the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation.Phoebe Ferguson is a native of New Orleans and the great-great granddaughter of Judge John Howard Ferguson, the named defendant in the case, Plessy v. Ferguson. In 2009, she co-founded the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation with Keith Plessy, the descendent of Homer Plessy, and is currently the foundation’s executive director.This event was moderated by Gregory L. Peterson, the co-founder of the Robert H. Jackson Center.