Overview
In Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), the Supreme Court held that a Louisiana law requiring separate railway cars for white and Black passengers did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, establishing "separate but equal." It underpinned Jim Crow segregation for nearly sixty years.
- Citation
- 163 U.S. 537
- Decided
- May 18, 1896
- Vote
- 7–1
- Overcome by
- Brown v. Board (1954)
Background
Louisiana’s 1890 Separate Car Act required equal but separate accommodations. A New Orleans civil-rights committee arranged a test case: in 1892 Homer Plessy, one-eighth Black, sat in a white car and was arrested. Judge John H. Ferguson upheld the law.
Majority and dissent
| Opinion | Reasoning |
|---|---|
| Majority (Justice Henry B. Brown) | The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees legal, not social, equality; any badge of inferiority is the plaintiffs’ own construction. |
| Dissent (Justice John Marshall Harlan) | "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." |
The lone dissenter was vindicated 58 years later. Harlan’s line became one of the most quoted in civil-rights law.
Aftermath
Segregation spread to schools and public facilities that were rarely equal. In 1954 *Brown* unanimously held separate educational facilities "inherently unequal"; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in public accommodations.
Frequently asked questions
- Why 7–1?
- Justice David Brewer did not participate; Harlan alone dissented.
- Was Plessy formally overruled?
- Brown rejected it in public education; later cases extended that elsewhere.
- Who was Ferguson?
- The Louisiana criminal-court judge who heard the case.
References
- Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
- Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
- Lofgren, C. A. (1987). The Plessy case: A legal-historical interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press.