Supreme Court Decesions: Plessy vs. Ferguson (1898)

Figure 1.--The Supreme Court's Plessy decesion countenanced the Juim Crow segregation system that Southern state legislatures established after Reconstruction. Here we see a rural Missouri school in 1938. The Court established the "separate but equal" dictim. In fact the schools and facilities set up for blacks were in no way equal to the white counterparts. The Court did not require the states to monitor this. Source: Library of Congress LC-USF34-031313-D.

The Federal Government through Reconstruction attempted to establish the civil rights of the newly freed slaves. The cornerstone of this effort was the 14th Amendment which guaranteed equal protection under the law. Southern state legistatures gradually passed Jim Crow laws which were clearly discriminatory. It was thus inevitable that these state laws would be challenged in the Federal courts. Homer Plessy boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated for whites only (1892). Plessy was one-eighth black and seven-eighths white, but under Louisiana state law he was classified as an African-American, and thus required to used the designated colored car. Plessy refused to leave the white car and was arrested. His case eventually reached the U,S. Supreme Court as Plessy vs. Fergusson (1898). The landmark Supreme Court decision strongly countenced segreagation and the overall system of racial aparthaid. The system enforced by law and the lynch rope ruled the American South until well after World War II (1939-45). Plessy established the legal doctine of "separate but equal". This was the only legal way of supportinmg segregation because the 14th Amendment had guaranteed "equal protection" under the law" for all Americans. The court vote was definitive-- 7 to 1. Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote the majority opinion. Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote the lone discenting opinion. He saw the desion and resulting separation as an expression of white supremacy. He predicted a range of adverse consequences. He foresaw that segregation would "stimulate aggressions … upon the admitted rights of colored citizens," "arouse race hate" and "perpetuate a feeling of distrust between [the] races." The Plessy case concerned public transport, but was the basis for other civic services, including public education. The system of segregated public schools had developed in the South after the Civil War. The Plessy decession simply validated the system that had developed. This primarily concerned the South, but there were segregated schools in other parts of the country as well.

Created: 7:24 PM 4/4/20088
Last updated: 7:24 PM 4/4/2008