As far as I can tell, your history is a bit confused.
I've never read anything about Plessy being "hired" by railroad owners - rather there was a civil rights group, the Citizens Committe, who were comprised of a variety of folks opposed to the seperste
car act.
They asked Plessy to voulenteer to be test case, to which he agreed. (And yes, it did backfire).
The railroad company was an ally to the cause due to costs of adding more cars, so they agreed to help.
Also, while that sentence does come from Wikipedia definition, I've never heard it used outside the scope of activism / civil rights work in 35+ years of activist work.
I've never read anything about Plessy being "hired" by railroad owners - rather there was a civil rights group, the Citizens Committe, who were comprised of a variety of folks opposed to the seperste car act.
They asked Plessy to voulenteer to be test case, to which he agreed. (And yes, it did backfire).
The railroad company was an ally to the cause due to costs of adding more cars, so they agreed to help.
Also, while that sentence does come from Wikipedia definition, I've never heard it used outside the scope of activism / civil rights work in 35+ years of activist work.