A photo of a black man drinking from a segregated water fountain.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

"Separate but Equal" Segregation is Upheld

An Oklahoma City streetcar terminal's "colored" drinking fountain, 1939

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

"Separate but Equal" Segregation is Upheld

Overview

In 1890, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act declaring that all rail companies carrying passengers in Louisiana must provide separate but equal accommodations for White and non-White passengers. The penalty for sitting in the wrong car was a fine of $25 or 20 days in jail. A group of Black citizens joined forces with the East Louisiana Railroad Company to fight the Act. In 1892, Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth Black, purchased a first-class ticket and sat in the White-designated railroad car. Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act and argued in court that the act violated the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. After losing twice in the lower courts, Plessy took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the previous decisions that racial segregation is constitutional under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

A photo of a black man drinking from a segregated water fountain.

An Oklahoma City streetcar terminal's "colored" drinking fountain, 1939

"The object of the [14th] Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either."

- Justice Brown, speaking for the majority

Learning About Plessy v. Ferguson

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About the Case

Learning Activities

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