page_title: List of landmark court decisions in the United States
section_title: Segregation (public transportation)
hierarchical_section_title: List of landmark court decisions in the United States / Individual rights / Discrimination based on race or ethnicity / Segregation (public transportation)
caption_attribution_description: English: "At the bus station in Durham, North Carolina." May 1940, Jack Delano. Deutsch: "An der Bushaltestelle, Durham, North Carolina.", Mai 1940, Jack Delano. Français&#160;: "A la gare routière, Durham, Caroline du Nord.", Mai 1940, Jack Delano. Español: "En la estación de autobuses, Durham, Carolina del Norte.", Mayo de 1940, Jack Delano. Italiano: "Alla fermata dell'autobus, Durham, Carolina del Nord." Maggio del 1940, Jack Delano.
context_page_description: The following is a partial list of landmark court decisions in the United States. Landmark decisions establish a significant new legal precedent or concept. They can also substantially change the interpretation of existing law. Such a decision may settle the law in more than one way:
  By distinguishing a new principle that refines a prior principle. This way it can depart from prior practice without violating the rule of stare decisis.
  Or, by establishing a test case or a measurable standard that can be applied by courts in future decisions.
  In the United States, landmark court decisions come most frequently from the Supreme Court. Sometimes United States courts of appeals make such decisions, particularly if the Supreme Court chooses not to review the case or if it adopts the holding of the lower court. Although many cases from state supreme courts are significant in developing the law of that state, only a few are so radically different that they announce standards that many other state courts then choose to follow.
context_section_description: Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) State laws requiring segregated facilities for blacks and whites are constitutional under the doctrine of separate but equal.  The ruling  held for nearly 60 years. (Partially overruled by Brown v. Board of Education (1954))
  Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (1946) A Virginia law that enforces segregation on interstate buses is unconstitutional.
  Henderson v. United States, 339 U.S. 816 (1950) The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 makes it unlawful for a railroad that engages in interstate commerce to subject any particular person to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever.
  Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, 64 MCC 769 (1955) According to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the non-discrimination language of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 bans racial segregation on buses traveling across state lines. The Supreme Court later adopted and expanded this decision in Boynton v. Virginia (1960).
  Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707 (M.D. Ala. 1956) Bus segregation is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454 (1960) Racial segregation in all forms of public transportation is illegal under the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.
caption: Browder v. Gayle made segregated bus lines like this one unconstitutional
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