Hall v. DeCuir

The case of Hall v. DeCuir (1877) was a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that addressed racial segregation on public transportation. The Court held that states could not prohibit segregation on common carriers like railroads and riverboats. This decision came after the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which aimed to guarantee equal treatment in public transportation and accommodations for African Americans.12

The Hall v. DeCuir ruling was a significant step in the establishment of Jim Crow laws, which enforced racial segregation in the South. While the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was later declared unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the precedent set by Hall v. DeCuir contributed to the legal framework that allowed for "separate but equal" facilities, a doctrine later upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). This ultimately sanctioned segregation in public transportation and other public spaces for decades.21