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Doc of the Day: Plessy v. Ferguson
05/18/10
On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court issued one of the most controversial rulings in its history in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. The decision made it legal for states to segregate citizens by race, as long as the facilities and resources provided to black and white citizens were “separate but equal.” Many states in the South used Plessy v. Ferguson to as a legal foundation to enact discriminatory Jim Crow laws that denied African-American residents their civil rights and put them in an inferior position in society. The “separate but equal” doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson remained in place for nearly six decades before it was effectively overturned with the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
Read the U.S. Supreme Court decision in PLESSY V. FERGUSON
Read the U.S. Supreme Court decision in BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION