Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Homer Plessy

African American arrested for sitting in the "white only" section on a railroad car

Judicial Review

Allows the court to determine the constitutionality of laws (established by Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Jim Crow Laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal."

Louisiana Separate Car Act of 1890

Louisiana State law that required all passenger railways to have separate train car accommodations for blacks and whites

14th Amendment (1868)

Reconstruction Amendment addressing citizenship, due process, equal protection

Segregation

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.

Supreme Court

The highest federal court of the United States, established by Article III of the US Constitution, with nine sitting justices today.

separate but equal doctrine

the doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that African Americans could constitutionally be segregated.