> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://america-250.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

> The decision upholding racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal."

<Note>
  **Citation:** 163 U.S. 537 (1896) · **Court:** Fuller Court · **Vote:** 7–1
</Note>

## 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."

## Significance

*Plessy* legitimized Jim Crow segregation across the South for nearly six decades. It was finally overturned by **Brown v. Board of Education** (1954), which held that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

## Source

Read the full opinion at the [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/usrep163537/) or [Oyez](https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/163us537).