Plessy vs Ferguson
What happened? Summarize the even
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark legal case decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1896. The event involved Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, who deliberately broke the Louisiana law requiring racial segregation on trains by sitting in a "whites-only" train car. Plessy was arrested and convicted for violating the law and subsequently appealed the case.
The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the Louisiana law, ruling that racial segregation was constitutional as long as the separate facilities were deemed "equal" under the doctrine of "separate but equal." This decision established the legal precedent for the "Jim Crow" system of racial segregation and discrimination that persisted in the United States until the mid-20th century. The court's ruling greatly hindered civil rights progress and perpetuated racial inequalities throughout the nation.