may 18, 1896 - Plessy vs Ferguson

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Plessy v. Ferguson was an important 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case came from an incident in 1892 where Homer Plessy, an African-American train passenger, refused to sit in a car for blacks. The Supreme Court rejected Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, ruling that a law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and blacks was not unconstitutional. As a result, restrictive Jim Crow legislation and separate public amenities based on race became social norms.

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