, United States (USA) (American Colonies)
1896 - May 18 – Plessy v. Ferguson: The U.S. Supreme Court introduces the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholds racial segregation.

The case of Plessy v. Ferguson centered around a Louisiana law that required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black, deliberately violated this law by sitting in a whites-only railway car. When he was asked to move to the blacks-only car and refused, he was arrested.

Plessy's legal team argued that the law violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery and guaranteed equal protection under the law, respectively. However, the Supreme Court, in a 7-1 decision, ruled against Plessy.

Justice Henry Billings Brown, writing for the majority, stated that as long as the facilities provided to blacks were equal to those provided to whites, segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision established the "separate but equal" doctrine, which became the legal basis for segregation laws throughout the United States.

Plessy v. Ferguson was a significant setback for civil rights and would remain in effect until it was overturned by the Supreme Court in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education.

May 18, 1896

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