This day in history - May 18, 1896: the Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional

By Richard K. Barry

In Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana law mandating separate but equal accommodations for blacks and whites on intrastate railroads was constitutional. This provided the legal framework to justify many other actions by state and local governments to socially separate blacks and whites. Aside from the obvious affront of mandating separate facilities, the suggestion that these would in fact be equal was, of course, absurd.

This case was overturned by Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, the 1954 Supreme Court case that declared that separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional, stating that "separate but equal educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Pictured above is Homer Plessy, plaintiff in Plessy v. Ferguson.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)