Separate Car Act

The Louisiana Separate Car Act of 1890 mandated that railroads provide "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races". This law was a significant part of the Jim Crow era, which enforced racial segregation in the South. The act required separation on public conveyances, with penalties for non-compliance.1

This law was challenged by Homer Plessy, a mixed-race man, who deliberately violated it by sitting in a whites-only car. His case, Plessy v. Ferguson, ultimately led to the U.S. Supreme Court's "separate but equal" doctrine in 1896. This doctrine, while seemingly advocating for equality, legitimized segregation and resulted in vastly inferior facilities and treatment for Black citizens. The "separate but equal" doctrine was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954.12