Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in 1896. It involved a Louisiana law that mandated racial segregation on trains. Homer Plessy, who was of mixed race and appeared white, deliberately violated the law by taking a seat in a whites-only train car. Plessy was arrested and challenged the constitutionality of the law, arguing that it violated his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the law, ruling that "separate but equal" facilities for different races were constitutional and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. This decision established the legal basis for racial segregation and the "Jim Crow" era of discrimination in the United States for the next several decades.
