Plessy Vs. Ferguson: Supreme Court Case

Plessy v. Ferguson was a supreme court case in 1896 and the decision entrenched legal segregation and it made “separate but equal” the law of the land. Brown v. Board of Education was also a supreme court case in 1954 and it ended legal segregation. Plessy was a black man (great grandmother was black) and Plessy violated Louisiana law by sitting in the white part of the train. Plessy sued based on the 14th Amendment and Equal Protection clause. Brown v. Board was a supreme court case that Brown sued the board of Education because the schools were unequal. However Brown v. Board of education showed that segregated schools were unequal and the decision of the supreme court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson case. Both cases were about segregation and

The main people of this supreme court was Plessy a black man that sat in the white part of the train or a Jim Crow car. Plessy was the one suing because Plessy thought that the 14th Amendment was being violated and as well the equal protection clause. Plessy was suing John H. Ferguson another main person in the case as well and John H. Ferguson upheld the state law or the Louisiana law. The case took place in the supreme court in 1896. The event related to the case happened in Louisiana Jim Crow car or a train and Plessy sat on the white part of the train but Plessy was black. The main argument that was made in the court for Plessy’s side was that segregated facilities violated the 14th Amendment and the equal protection clause. Plessy shouldn’t have been required to give up any public right. The Louisiana law violated the equal protection clause. The main argument that was made in the court for Louisiana's side was that the facility was separate but equal and that the 14th amendment wasn’t violated and it provided the protections required by the 14th amendment. It also satisfied the demands of the white citizens. The ruling in this case was that it was legal to have segregation as long if it’s “separate but equal” and the decision was also 7-1 which meant that 7 voted that the Jim Crow car was “separate but equal” and 1 voted that it violated the equal protection clause. As a result of the 7 to 1 vote, the ruling was legal segregation and as long the segregated facilities were “Separate but equal”.This decision was made because the justices said it was the right of each state to make rules to protect the public safety and segregated facilities would reflect Louisiana’s public. Also Jim crow laws made these kinds of segregation facilities legal and the train that Plessy was sitting in was separate and both parts of the train