Today in History—May 18: Day 2: Plessy v. Ferguson

On this day in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that would endure until a day in May 1954. In a 7–1 decision (with one abstention), the Court decreed that racial segregation was not unconstitutional so long as states provided “equal” facilities. In practice, it gave legal cover to the perpetuation of deeply unequal public systems, including schools.

With Plessy v. Ferguson Jim Crow laws were effectively cemented: Segregation could continue under the doctrine of “separate but equal”—though the facilities were rarely equal.

The case began in Louisiana, which passed the Separate Car Act in 1890, requiring railroads to provide separate cars for Black and white passengers. These arrangements were costly and therefore unpopular with rail companies. With the cooperation of the railroad, a group of New Orleans Creole professionals saw an opening to organize a challenge.

The whole thing was a setup from the get-go.

Homer Plessy—a white-passing 29-year-old shoemaker who was one-eighth Black and thus legally considered Black under Louisiana law—volunteered to create a backdrop for a legal challenge to the act. In June 1892 he bought a ticket, boarded the East Louisiana Railroad’s Number 8 train, and sat in a designated-white car. He refused orders to move and was dragged off the train. His arrest by a prearranged detective followed.

In district court under Judge John Howard Ferguson (from which the case gets its name), Plessy and his legal team argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments. They lost. A state court concurred with the district court. Plessy next appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. That court heard arguments in 1896 and delivered its ruling on this day.

The majority decision rejected Plessy’s contentions, arguing that segregation did not constitute servitude and that the Fourteenth Amendment protected legal rights, not social ones. Associate Justice Henry Billings Brown further argued that separation of races was a reasonable way to preserve public order.

This decision was not unexpected. Post-Reconstruction America—especially the South—was actively trying to claw back civil rights gains from Black Americans. After the Plessy ruling segregation laws multiplied, entrenching a system of racial separation that would last for decades.

Justice John Marshall Harlan was the lone dissent, calling the Constitution “color-blind.” Plessy would stand until Linda Brown tried to go to school nearly 60 years later.