Deep Roots Vol. 5 — New Orleans: The Lawsuit, the Quarter, the Mask (Interactive Edition)

The arrest was planned. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy bought a first-class ticket and took his seat in the whites-only car precisely so he would be arrested — the test case the Citizens' Committee had designed. This book tells what that design cost and what it bought: Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, decided 7–1 on May 18, 1896; Plessy's plea and $25 fine in January 1897; and the pardon that finally reached the record on January 5, 2022. It also issues a receipt of its own: no verified portrait of Homer Plessy exists — the face on a hundred websites is not documented as his, so this book does not print it as him.

Then the city that produced him: the Creoles of color, anchored to the 1860 census's own counts — 18,647 free people of color statewide, 10,689 in New Orleans — printed as census counts, not legend. The pipeline from Congo Square and Storyville to the boy who carried the music out. The Mask: the Mardi Gras Indians and a year of sewing. Zulu, held to its hard documentary floor — the notarial incorporation of September 20, 1916, with 22 signatories. And McDonogh's paradox, with his enslaved count printed open — 95 in one source, 192 in another — because the succession record has not settled it, and neither will this book, ahead of the evidence.

Inside the Interactive Edition:

- The complete book — all 6 chapters, full text

- Recorded narration by Marcus — about 73 minutes, every chapter read aloud

- A chronological timeline that jumps straight to the chapter behind each date

- A 10-question educator quiz drawn strictly from the text

- Every chapter closes with its sources and a method note — open questions are printed open, and unproven images are refused

- The storybook-style cover, drawn for young readers and the families who read with them

- For educators: a TEKS correlation sheet for this volume is available with the Deep Roots Educator materials — Plessy is a named case in the adopted standards, and the sheet places it in the correct strand

The chapters: The Planned Arrest: Homer Plessy and the Citizens' Committee · Creoles of Color: Free Before the Purchase, Reclassified by Jim Crow · The Pipeline: Congo Square, Storyville, and the Boy Who Carried It Out · The Mask: A Year of Sewing · Zulu: From the Tramps to the Kings · McDonogh's Paradox: The Slaveholder Who Endowed the Schools

Two states. One story. All receipts.