In 1892, Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth Black, purchased a first-class ticket and sat in the White-designated railroad car. Plessy was arrested for violating Louisiana’s Separate Car Act and argued in court that the act violated the 10th and 14th Constitutional Amendments. The 10th Amendment reserves broad, undefined powers for the states, and the 14th Amendment says states may not deny people equal protection of the law.

Ferguson (1838-1915) was the Louisiana judge who presided over the district court of Orleans. He ruled against Plessy by upholding the state’s Separate Car Act and establishing the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Plessy then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court Case known as Plessy V Ferguson In May 1896, the Supreme Court issued a 7-1 decision against Plessy, ruling that the Louisiana law did not violate the Constitution.

It held that although the Fourteenth Amendment established the legal equality of whites and blacks, it did not accept Plessy’s plea against legitimized state laws establishing “racial” segregation.

The ruling provided an impetus for further segregation laws. States proceeded to institute segregation-based laws that became known as the Jim Crow System. Named for “Jump Jim Crow,” a derogatory song-and-dance caricature of a Black person, it was a series of laws in the U.S. South from the 1870s to the 1960s, enforcing racial apartheid and subordinating African Americans as second-class citizens.

It mandated segregation in all public facilities (schools, transit, parks) and disenfranchised Black voters.

Despite this decision being widely regarded as one of the worst decisions in U.S. Supreme Court history, it has never been overruled.

Beginning in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education, however, the Court’s later decisions have severely weakened Plessy to the point that it is usually considered de facto overruled.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was a landmark Supreme Court case that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson.

Brown v. Board of Education was a consolidation of five different cases challenging the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools. The most notable case involved Oliver Brown, who sought to enroll his daughter, Linda, in a white school closer to their home in Topeka, Kan.

The local school board denied her admission, forcing her to attend a segregated black school farther away. The case was brought to Supreme Court by the NAACP, with Thurgood Marshall.

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9-0 decision stating that racial segregation in public schools did violate the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Court found that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

The Brown decision was a pivotal moment in the American civil rights movement, serving as a catalyst for further efforts to end racial segregation and discrimination.

It galvanized activists and increased public awareness of the inequalities faced by African Americans.

But, the Court did not order the implementation of integration schools, instead it requested the parties re-appear before the Court the following term to hold arguments on what the remedy should be. This became known as Brown II.

The court delegated the task of carrying out school desegregation to district courts with orders that desegregation occur “with all deliberate speed.”

Brown v Board served as a catalyst for hundreds of subsequent legal actions aimed at desegregating American society.

It is an on-going process. As of 2025, over 200 K-12 school desegregation cases and 50 university cases remained open on federal court dockets.

Joy Cowdery, member of Living Democracy: Engaging Citizens, a local citizen group.

Our mission is to inform and educate the Mid-Ohio Valley about how government works on the local, state, and federal levels and how citizens can be involved to make our democracy work.

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