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Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Homer Plessy was a Louisiana black man who boarded a “whites only” railroad car. He was arrested and sued under the equal rights provisions of the 13th and 14th amendments. Ferguson was the Louisiana judge who ruled that the state had the right to regulate railroad companies in any way it saw fit. The Supremes, once again exhibiting their sense of racial
tolerance and fairness, ruled that the law did not suggest black inferiority, and that the separation of the races in public facilities was hunky-dory, as long as those facilities were equal. This “separate but equal” ruling stood until it was overturned in the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954.
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Lewis BealeLewis Beale is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Newsday and many other publicatio...
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