Plessy v. Ferguson Blesses "Separate but Equal"
The Supreme Court makes segregation the law of the land
Quick facts
- Decided
- May 18, 1896
- Doctrine established
- "Separate but equal"
- Vote
- 7 to 1, Justice Harlan dissenting
- Overturned by
- Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
What happened
In 1890 Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, requiring separate railroad seating for white and Black passengers. A New Orleans group organized a test case: Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white, deliberately sat in a whites-only car and was arrested on June 7, 1892. His challenge reached the Supreme Court, which on May 18, 1896, ruled against him. The Court held that laws requiring equal but separate accommodations for the two races were constitutional, establishing the doctrine of separate but equal. Only Justice John Marshall Harlan dissented, writing that our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. The ruling gave federal blessing to racial segregation and stood for nearly sixty years.
Why it matters
Plessy v. Ferguson made segregation constitutional and became the legal backbone of Jim Crow across the South, sanctioning separate schools, transit, and public facilities that were rarely equal. It stood as binding precedent until Brown v. Board of Education overturned it in 1954, and Harlan's lone dissent became one of the most admired minority opinions in American law.
How we know
The Court's majority opinion and Harlan's dissent are preserved in the official U.S. Reports (163 U.S. 537) and the National Archives, and the case's origins in the Louisiana Separate Car Act are documented in state records and the National Park Service history of Homer Plessy.
Sources
- National Archives. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) · Primary source (author-declared)archives.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- National Park Service. Homer Plessy · Reputable sourcenps.gov · The domain "nps.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Civil Rights Movement → · The segregation Plessy legalized is what the civil rights movement set out to end; see that timeline for the campaign that culminated in Brown v. Board and the civil rights laws.