Young Adult Nonfiction

The inspiring story of how Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, descendants of key figures in the infamous Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, have come together to fight for racial equality.

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson were both born in New Orleans in 1957. Sixty-five years earlier, in 1892, a member of each of their families met in a Louisiana courtroom when Judge John Howard Ferguson found that Homer Plessy could be charged with breaking the law by sitting in a train car for white passengers. The case of Plessy v. Ferguson went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that “separate-but-equal” was constitutional, sparking decades of unjust laws and discriminatory attitudes.

In Together, Amy Nathan threads the personal stories of Keith and Phoebe into the larger history of the Plessy v. Ferguson case, race relations, and civil rights movements in New Orleans and throughout the U.S. This second edition includes a new epilogue describing a triumph that occurred a year after the first edition was published. In 2022, the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation, which was created by Keith and Phoebe in 2009 to change the legacy of the case that links their families, worked with a legal team and won a posthumous pardon for Homer Plessy.

Includes black and white photos throughout.

"Together has a second edition that adds a new coda to Homer Plessy's legal saga. Nearly 125 years to the day when [Homer] Plessy pled guilty in January 1897 and paid a $25 fine for violating the state's Separate Car Act, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards finally pardoned him for his act of civil disobedience. The book's author, Amy Nathan, recently spoke to Law360 about Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson's shared history, their petition for Homer Plessy's pardon, and how they replaced the 'versus' of Plessy v. Ferguson with 'and' to form the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation in 2009 to help educate people about the case and the legacy of segregation."—Law360

 

"An ambitious account of the legacies of Plessy and Ferguson . . . Undeniably timely and representative of the necessary work ahead."—Kirkus Reviews

“Amy Nathan’s well-researched and beautifully written book makes clear the history of racism that has kept Black people separate and unequal in U.S. society for so long—and how we today can work to chart a new future. The friendship between Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, descendants of the antagonists in the infamous Supreme Court decision that cemented racial inequality, Plessy v. Ferguson, demonstrates that ancestry need not be destiny—if we are willing to do the hard work of repair. In Amy Nathan’s capable hands, their intertwined histories come alive, demonstrating one of many paths we can purposefully take towards a more equitable society.”—Leslie M. Harris, Professor of History, Northwestern University, and author of In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson were both born in New Orleans in 1957. Sixty-five years earlier, in 1892, a member of each of their families met in a Louisiana courtroom when Judge John Howard Ferguson found Homer Plessy guilty of breaking the law by sitting in a train car for white passengers. The case of Plessy v. Ferguson went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that “separate-but-equal” was constitutional, sparking decades of unjust laws and discriminatory attitudes.

In Together, Amy Nathan threads the personal stories of Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson into the larger history of the Plessy v. Ferguson case, race relations, and civil rights movements in New Orleans and throughout the U.S. She tells the inspiring tale of how Keith and Phoebe came together to change the ending of the story that links their families in history. It’s “a flip on the script,” said Keith.