How did the Supreme Court justify the practice of segregating railroad passengers in Louisiana by race?

Answer 1

The Supreme Court justified the practice of segregating railroad passengers in Louisiana by race in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson by upholding the "separate but equal" doctrine. The Court ruled that racial segregation was constitutional as long as the separate facilities for the races were equal. The majority opinion, written by Justice Henry Billings Brown, argued that the law did not imply the inferiority of either race and that social equality could not be legislated. This decision effectively sanctioned racial segregation and discrimination in various aspects of public life.