The Comité des Citoyens: eighteen Creoles of color take on the Separate Car Act (New Orleans, September 1891)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1891 · Places: Louisiana, Europe
SUMMARYThe Comité des Citoyens: eighteen Creoles of color take on the Separate Car Act (New Orleans, September 1891) [Connections: Louisiana (deep), Nov 5, 2026]
RECORD64 Parishes (Fatima Shaik) says the Comité des Citoyens announced itself in the Crusader on September 5, 1891, to challenge "Act No. 111, Commonly Known as the Separate Car Law." It names 18 founders, including Arthur Esteves (president), C. C. Antoine (vice president), Louis A. Martinet and Rodolphe Desdunes. White lawyers Albion W. Tourgée and James C. Walker joined. It says some members descended from free people of color and "had European appearances."
PATTERNThe people who organized Plessy came from the old "free people of color" class, the same class the 1806–1808 laws created on paper, which took in Native ancestry
LENS (WW9)The old "free people of color" fought the paper race in court
OPENThe page does not mention Native ancestry for any member. Needs deep research into Desdunes's and Martinet's family records
SOURCEComité des Citoyens (64 Parishes, Fatima Shaik).