Plessy v. Ferguson was an 1896 United States Supreme Court decision upholding a Louisiana law requiring racially segregated railway cars, ruling that state mandated segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection so long as the separate facilities provided were equal. The decision, with Justice John Marshall Harlan dissenting alone, established the 'separate but equal' doctrine that provided constitutional cover for segregation laws across the American South for the following half century, until the Supreme Court unanimously overruled it in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
Facts
Key ProvisionDecided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896, it upheld a Louisiana law requiring racially segregated railway cars, holding that state-mandated racial segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause so long as the separate facilities provided were equal. This established the separate but equal doctrine that legally sanctioned segregation across the United States until Brown v. Board of Education overturned it in 1954. 1 Classification
Document TypeCourt Ruling or Judicial Opinion 1 Original Language Connections
Rejected Here
Brown expressly overturned Plessy's separate but equal doctrine as applied to public education.
Source Brown v. Board of Education (National Archives)
Associated With
This source names United States directly: "Ferguson was an 1896 United States Supreme Court decision upholding a Louisiana law requiring racially segregated railway cars, ruling that state mandated segregation did not violate the Fourteenth..."
Source Plessy v. Ferguson (National Archives)
Drafted By
Source Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School: Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)
Influenced
Plessy v. Ferguson's 'separate but equal' doctrine stood as constitutional law until Brown v. Board of Education unanimously overruled it in 1954.
Sources
1. Plessy v. Ferguson (National Archives)
National ArchivesDocument type, descriptionQuote, Document type, description
Plessy v. Ferguson was an 1896 United States Supreme Court decision upholding a Louisiana law requiring racially segregated railway cars, ruling that state mandated segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection so long as the separate facilities provided were equal.
2. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School: Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law SchoolOpinion of the CourtQuote, Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court
Wikidata: Plessy v. Ferguson
Wikidata Q656660, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)View the Source Brown v. Board of Education (National Archives)
U.S. National Archives and Records AdministrationAssociated With: Brown v. Board of EducationView the Source Plessy v. Ferguson (Wikipedia)
In Group: United States Supreme Court Decisions Before 1900, Lead paragraphQuote, In Group: United States Supreme Court Decisions Before 1900, Lead paragraph
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".
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