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Plessy v. Ferguson, (1896) was an appeal of a Louisiana state law, the Separate Car Act of 1890, that required railroad companies to provide separate train cars for African-American and Caucasian travelers. The Louisiana state courts upheld the law, so Plessy (and the Citizens' Committee, an early civil rights group in New Orleans) appealed the case to the US Supreme Court, challenging the law as unconstitutional under the Thirteenth (anti-slavery) and Fourteenth (equal protection) Amendments.

The Court held that the Thirteenth Amendment applied only to slavery, and that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection was satisfied if the railroad companies provided "equal" facilities and accommodations for African-Americans. This decision established the "separate but equal" doctrine that allowed states to pass racist Jim Crow laws.

The decision in Plessy was later overturned by Brown v. Board of Education, (1954), but Jim Crow laws continued to exist until Congress began legislating and enforcing the Civil Rights Acts, beginning in 1964.

Case Citation:

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 US 537 (1896)

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