Plessy v. Ferguson

Week 11 — Race — Separate but Equal

Facts

  • Louisiana law required separate railway carriages for white and black passengers.
  • Plessy, who was 1/8 black, was arrested for sitting in the white-only carriage and challenged the statute as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Issue

Whether laws mandating racial segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Holding

No. "Separate but equal" laws do not violate the EPC of the 14th Amendment.

Reasoning

  • The Court upheld separation of the races as a valid exercise of a state's power to maintain public order.
  • The 14th Amendment was not intended to abolish distinctions based on color or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality.

Notes

  • Plessy sits alongside Dred Scott v. Sandford in the pre–strict-scrutiny era of race jurisprudence.
  • Effectively overruled by Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
  • Any modern constitutional stance or analysis that would implicitly validate Dred Scott or Plessy is wholly baseless.