Plessy vs Ferguson
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What happened? Summarize the event!
Where did the event take place?
When did the event take place?
Plessy vs Ferguson was a landmark US Supreme Court case. The key individuals involved were Homer Plessy, an African American man, and John Ferguson, a judge in Louisiana. It also had an impact on the larger African American community and the general public, as it upheld the controversial "separate but equal" doctrine.
In 1892, Homer Plessy deliberately sat in a whites-only railroad car in Louisiana, in violation of the state's segregation laws. He was arrested and later challenged his conviction on the grounds that such segregation violated his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees equal protection to all citizens.
The event took place in Louisiana, specifically on a train traveling from New Orleans to Covington.
The case was heard by the US Supreme Court and a ruling was issued on May 18, 1896, which upheld Louisiana's segregation laws. The court stated that separate public facilities for different races were constitutional as long as they were equal in quality. This decision led to the establishment of the "separate but equal" doctrine, justifying racial segregation in various aspects of public life for nearly six decades until it was overturned by the landmark Brown vs Board of Education case in 1954.