Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court Decision
May 18, 1896 · 19th Century
On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-1 in Plessy v. Ferguson that state-mandated segregation laws did not violate the Constitution if facilities for each race were equal in quality. This established the "separate but equal" doctrine. The case originated when Homer Plessy was arrested for refusing to leave a whites-only train car in Louisiana, challenging the state's 1890 Separate Car Act. Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote the lone dissenting opinion. The ruling provided legal foundation for racial segregation until Brown v. Board of Education overturned it in 1954.
Key Figures
Homer PlessyJohn H. FergusonJustice Henry Billings BrownJohn Marshall Harlan
Locations
Washington, D.C.New Orleans, Louisiana
Topics
supreme courtcivil rightssegregationjim crow
Connected Events — 10 Connections
Plessy's 1896 "separate but equal" doctrine legalized racial segregation for 58 years until Brown v Board unanimously overturned it, declaring segregated schools inherently unequal Brown v Board of Education
The corporate personhood precedent established in Santa Clara created legal framework that corporations later used to challenge civil rights legislation, while Plessy's 'separate but equal' doctrine combined with corporate personhood rights to shield businesses from anti-discrimination laws for decades Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad
Plessy's lawyers argued segregation violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, but the Court gutted that argument by ruling "separate but equal" satisfied the amendment Fourteenth Amendment Ratified
The 1883 ruling struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, establishing the legal precedent that the 14th Amendment did not prohibit private discrimination — the foundation Plessy extended to state law Civil Rights Cases of 1883
Established race-based exclusion logic echoed in Chinese Exclusion Act Signed into Law
The NAACP was founded in 1909 specifically to challenge Plessy's "separate but equal" doctrine through litigation, a strategy that culminated in Brown v Board 45 years later NAACP Founded
Applied parallel racial hierarchy logic of Immigration Act of 1924 Signed into Law
Driven by terror and economic oppression codified in The Great Migration Begins
Racial violence enabled by Jim Crow system rooted in Murder of Emmett Till
Racial profiling rooted in legal hierarchy established by Shooting of Trayvon Martin
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