Plessy vs Ferguson what happened? Summarize the event!
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark court case in the United States that occurred in 1896. The case revolved around the issue of racial segregation, specifically on public transportation.
Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, deliberately sat in a "whites-only" railroad car in Louisiana, despite being classified as black under the state's racial segregation laws. Plessy was arrested and charged with violating the Separate Car Act, which mandated separate railroad cars for black and white passengers.
Plessy's legal team argued that the Separate Car Act violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal treatment under the law. They contended that segregation perpetuated racial inequality and was unconstitutional.
However, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the state of Louisiana, upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation. In a 7-1 decision, the court determined that as long as segregated facilities were "separate but equal," they did not violate the equal protection clause.
This ruling established the "separate but equal" doctrine, which allowed for legally enforced segregation across various public facilities and services for several decades. Plessy v. Ferguson served as a legal precedent for the continued segregation and discrimination against African Americans until it was eventually overturned by the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954.