Plessy vs. Ferguson

"Separate-but-equal"

In 1896, Homer Plessy argued that his and everyone else's right to "equal protection of the laws" was taken away when a Louisiana law that had required separate seating on public railroads for African Americans and whites. The court decided that the law was not in violation of Plessy's right because they argued that segregation was legal as long as the separate seating for African Americans was equal to the seating provided to the whites. The court argued that The Fourteenth Amendment was not supposed to give African Americans social equality, but only political and civil equality. The "equality" part of this case was hard to prove as African American schools and other designated places were rarely equal.