The Supreme Court ruled in the Plessy v Ferguson case in 1896 that “separate but equal” facilities for African Americans did not violate the Constitution. Therefore, segregation was acceptable as long as the facilities provided for both races were deemed equal. This decision was based on the notion of “states’ rights” and allowed for legal segregation and discrimination to persist for decades. The ruling was eventually overturned in the landmark case Brown v Board of Education in 1954.
