Supreme Court Approves Segregation
The Supreme Court's approval of segregation in the late 19th century is epitomized by the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which legitimized racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal." This ruling came in the context of a post-Civil War America, where the legacy of slavery and systemic racism persisted despite the ratification of constitutional amendments aimed at securing civil rights for African Americans. The case involved Homer Plessy, who challenged segregation laws by refusing to sit in a designated "black" railroad car, ultimately leading to his conviction. The Supreme Court's nearly unanimous decision upheld the segregationist laws, asserting that separate facilities did not imply racial inferiority, despite evidence to the contrary.
For decades following this ruling, segregation became constitutionally permissible, entrenching second-class citizenship for African Americans. However, the foundation of this system began to erode in the late 1940s, leading to significant legal challenges against segregation. This culminated in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, which declared that segregated schools were inherently unequal and overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. The historical implications of these rulings reflect a long struggle for civil rights and highlight the ongoing challenges faced by marginalized communities in the United States.
Supreme Court Approves Segregation
The Supreme Court Approves Segregation
On May 18, 1896, the United States Supreme Court handed down one of the most infamous legal decisions in American history. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court sanctioned segregation in the South, inaugurating an era in which African Americans would in fact be second-class citizens.
The Civil War ended slavery. After the war, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution were ratified in order to guarantee the civil liberties of the newly-freed slaves. The legacy of slavery, however, was not so easily eradicated. Most African Americans were poor, had never been educated, and lived as farmers on land owned by whites. When southern states were readmitted to the Union during Reconstruction, southern whites began to reassert their power over the economically and politically vulnerable blacks. For example, in order to prevent blacks from voting, poll taxes were imposed. The tax was usually nominal, and thus affordable for whites, but sufficiently onerous for poor blacks that it effectively disenfranchised them. Other examples include literacy tests, which prevented the illiterate from voting and again impacted blacks more than whites.
By the late 19th century, southern states had also passed the first segregation laws, establishing separate schools and other public facilities for blacks and whites. The federal government made some attempts to preserve the civil rights of African Americans, but political support outside of the black community was weak. Further, there were many southerners on the Supreme Court, who in such cases as U.S. v. Cruikshank (1875) began to hobble the civil rights powers of the federal government with narrow interpretations of the Constitution and the post-Civil War amendments.
One particular southern segregation law was an 1890 Louisiana statute “that all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this state shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races.…” On June 7, 1892 a thirty-year-old shoemaker named Homer Plessy bought a ticket for travel on the East Louisiana Railroad from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. Although he was seven-eighths white in ancestry, under Louisiana law Plessy was still required to sit in the “black” railroad car, and was arrested when he refused to leave the car for whites-only. He was tried and convicted for violating the law.
Although the penalty was $25 or 20 days in jail, Plessy pursued his case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In a nearly unanimous decision, the Court upheld Plessy's conviction, stating that if segregated facilities were “separate but equal” there was no constitutional violation. The Court ignored the fact that in reality separate facilities would be inherently unequal, because of the implication of racial inferiority and the lack of any practical mechanism for enforcing the “equal” portion of the equation. Only Justice John M. Harlan dissented from the Court's decision, stating that “our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”
After Plessy, segregation was constitutionally permissible for decades. Beginning in the late 1940s, however, cracks in the institution began to develop. For example, the Supreme Court held that segregated law schools were inherently unequal, since as lawyers the justices knew that the social contacts made in law school could be just as important as the quality of education in a lawyer's career. This precedent led indirectly to the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which held that segregated public schools were unconstitutional. In its holding, the Court effectively overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown was followed by other court decisions striking down other aspects of segregation, and unlike the Reconstruction era these decisions were backed by strong federal civil rights laws. By the 1970s segregation was all but over, and Plessy became no more than an unfortunate historic relic.