Plessy V. ferguson
Homer Adolph Plessy, who was 7/8 white, sat in a white train car and refused to move to the black train car. He was arrested, and his case over the legitimacy of segregated train cars made it to the supreme court.
The goal of the case was to figure out whether Louisiana's law mandating segregation was constitutional or not, in particular whether it conformed to the 14th amendment. The decision was that yes, it was constitutional, on the grounds that it upheld the separate but equal policy.
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The Plessy v. Ferguson case took place in 1896, however Plessy's arrest on the train was in 1892.
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It was a rather large blow to the freed slaves and people of mixed races, it upheld the separate but equal doctrine that was, in reality, not equal.
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I think was a huge setback to integration. It showed the federal support of separate but equal laws, which were not overwritten until the mid 1900s.
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