In 1890, the Louisiana legislature passed a law (the Separate Car Act) requiring separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars. On June 7, 1892, African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. He was brought before Judge John H. Ferguson of the Criminal Court for New Orleans. Plessy was a member of a group formed to challenge Jim Crow laws, intentionally broke the law in order to initiate a case. Returning by rail from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, where he lived, Plessy was asked by railroad officials to sit in the segregated area of the train. He refused and was arrested as an act of civil disobedience and as planned, the train was stopped and Plessy was taken off the train.