Plessy v. Ferguson

Plessy v. Ferguson was an 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld state-mandated racial segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal.”

Separate but equal: A legal doctrine permitting racial segregation if facilities for different races were supposedly equal. The Court used this doctrine to uphold Louisiana’s segregated railway law.
Reconstruction Amendments: The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, adopted after the U.S. Civil War. Their guarantees framed the constitutional challenge to state-enforced racial hierarchy.
Brown v. Board of Education: A 1954 Supreme Court decision holding racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Brown rejected segregation in public education and undermined Plessy’s doctrine.
Berea College v. Kentucky: A 1908 Supreme Court decision upholding Kentucky’s prohibition on racially integrated private education. It extended the segregationist logic Plessy had authorized.
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution: A constitutional amendment guaranteeing citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law. The Court interpreted its Equal Protection Clause to permit segregation.
Civil Rights Cases: An 1883 Supreme Court decision invalidating parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It narrowed federal protection against private racial discrimination before Plessy.
Sweatt v. Painter: A 1950 Supreme Court decision requiring admission of a Black applicant to a segregated Texas law school. The Court exposed inequalities that the separate-but-equal formula could not remedy.
Plessy v. Ferguson dissent: Justice John Marshall Harlan’s dissent arguing that the Constitution is color-blind and does not permit racial caste. Harlan offered a direct constitutional alternative to the majority opinion.
John Marshall Harlan: A U.S. Supreme Court justice who served from 1877 to 1911 and dissented in Plessy v. Ferguson. His dissent rejected the majority’s constitutional reasoning and condemned racial caste.
Jim Crow laws: State and local laws enforcing racial segregation and subordination, especially in the American South. Louisiana’s railway law belonged to the expanding Jim Crow system.

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