Plessy v. Ferguson

***Plessy v. Ferguson***, , was a United States Supreme Court case that ruled segregation was legal, as long as equal facilities were provided for both races. The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1. The majority opinion was written by Justice Henry Billings Brown, and the minority opinion was written by Justice John Marshall Harlan.

In 1954, _Brown v. Board of Education_ partially overturned the _Plessy v. Ferguson_ ruling.

## Background

The State of Louisiana passed a law saying that whites and blacks had to ride in different cars on trains, but required that the train cars be "equal". Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth black (meaning that one of his eight great-grandparents was black) was arrested for riding in a whites-only car. He challenged the Louisiana law, saying it was against the United States Constitution. Plessy argued that the state law which required East Louisiana Railroad to segregate trains had denied him his rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

## The Decision

The Supreme Court, in a 7-1 decision, ruled that the Louisiana law was valid. They said that requiring whites and blacks to ride in separate trains did not harm blacks in any way. Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only justice who thought the law was against the Constitution. He thought segregation made black Americans feel inferior. He said that the Constitution is "color blind" and that the law should not treat any group better than any other group.

## _Brown_ and _Plessy_

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court made it illegal to segregate schools by race. Chief Justice Earl Warren even ruled that "separate facilities are [always] unequal".

However, Brown did not make it illegal to segregate in any other places, aside from schools. Segregation in other places was still legal. This means that Brown overturned _part_ of _Plessy v. Ferguson_ by making school segregation illegal, but it did not overturn the entire law. The entire law wasn't overturned until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

## Related pages

- Racial segregation
- History of racial segregation in the United States
- Jim Crow laws

## Infobox (scotus case)

- **litigants**: Plessy v. Ferguson
- **arguedate**: April 13
- **argueyear**: 1896
- **decidedate**: May 18
- **decideyear**: 1896
- **fullname**: Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson
- **usvol**: 163
- **uspage**: 537
- **prior**: [https://books.google.com/books?id=U4I7AAAAIAAJ _Ex parte Plessy_, 11 So. 948 (La. 1892)]
- **subsequent**: None
- **holding**: Louisiana's law requiring racial segregation, segregation is constitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 14th Amendment, as long as both race (sociology), races have "separate but equal" facilities
- **scotus**: 1896-1897
- **chiefjustice**: Melville Fuller
- **majority**: Brown
- **joinmajority**: Fuller, Field, Gray, Shiras, White, Peckham
- **dissent**: Harlan
- **notparticipating**: Brewer
- **overruled**: _Brown v. Board of Education_ 347 U.S. 483 (1954) **(partially overruled)**
- **lawsapplied**: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment; 1890 La. Acts 152