Plessy v. Ferguson was more than the state’s white minority had hoped for. The decision allowed them to create a two-tiered system that preserved white power. On May 12, 1898, a reconvened Louisiana constitutional convention adopted a new state constitution that enshrined all their racist imaginings into law. Convention president Ernest Kruttschnitt opened with a plea that foretold their purpose, saying, “May this hall, where thirty-two years ago, the negro first entered upon the unequal contest for supremacy, and which has been reddened with his blood, now witness the evolution of our organic
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