TOGETHER

An ambitious account of the legacies of Plessy and Ferguson, before and beyond the vs.

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, two New Orleans–based activists born in the deeply segregated city in 1957, provide an apt framework for Nathan to narrativize centuries of legislation of Black bodies. Plessy’s great-grandfather’s cousin Homer met Ferguson’s great-great-grandfather John in a courtroom in 1892, and Nathan attempts to demystify the eventual Supreme Court case that bears their surnames by explaining in plain language prior laws and legal precedents, the unique complexities of race in antebellum New Orleans, and the shifts that occured after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Minibiographies highlight Plessy forebears alongside activists of the 19th century and political leaders of the mid-20th. The wealth of easy-to-digest information will be useful to middle school researchers, but Nathan is most effective when grounded in the pair’s present-day work as friends and collaborators—despite the tumultuous link that greatly impacted their upbringings. Through the founding of the Plessy and Ferguson Foundation and historical markers placed throughout NOLA, the pair attempt to reconcile their shared history and ultimately provide Nathan’s work a hopeful, contemporary conclusion despite a good-people-on-both-sides approach to racial injustice that may be off-putting to many.

Undeniably timely and representative of the necessary work ahead.