Citation: 163 U.S. 537 (1896) · Court: Fuller Court · Vote: 7–1
Holding
State laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, so long as the separate facilities were “equal.” This created the doctrine of “separate but equal.”Background
Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white, deliberately sat in a “whites-only” railcar to challenge Louisiana’s Separate Car Act. He was arrested, and his case reached the Supreme Court.The Decision
The majority held that segregation laws did not imply the inferiority of either race and were a reasonable exercise of state power. Justice John Marshall Harlan dissented alone, with words that history vindicated:“Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”