What overturned Plessy v. Ferguson?
Asked by: Destiny Johnston PhD | Last update: February 2, 2026Score: 4.7/5 (59 votes)
The Supreme Court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which unanimously declared state-sponsored segregation in public schools unconstitutional, effectively ending the "separate but equal" doctrine that Plessy had established.
How was Plessy v. Ferguson overturned?
Ferguson was finally overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which explicitly rejected Plessy's separate but equal doctrine as it applied to public education. Brown thus implied the unconstitutionality of “separate but equal” in all other spheres of public life.
Why did Brown overturn Plessy?
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Marshall and overturned Plessy by ruling that: “We conclude that in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.
How did the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson eventually get overturned?
Despite its infamy, the decision has never been overruled explicitly. Beginning in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education, however, a series of the Court's later decisions have severely weakened Plessy to the point that it is usually considered de facto overruled.
What overturned the legal logic of Plessy v. Ferguson?
Nearly 58 years later, the decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, issued on May 17, 1954, overturned the Plessy decision. Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for a unanimous Brown court in 1954, “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place.
"Separate But Equal" | Plessy v. Ferguson
When was the last segregation law overturned?
The last of the Jim Crow laws were generally overturned in 1965 by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Formal and informal racial segregation policies were present in other areas of the United States as well, even as several states outside the South had banned discrimination in public accommodations and voting.
How did they know Plessy was black?
They knew Homer Plessy was Black because he was part of a deliberate plan to challenge Louisiana's Separate Car Act; Plessy, who was 7/8ths white but legally Black under the "one-drop rule," announced his African ancestry to the conductor, ensuring his arrest for sitting in the white car, which was the exact goal of the Citizens' Committee that organized the test case.
What reversed Plessy?
Thurgood Marshall, who would in 1967 be appointed the first black justice of the Court, was chief counsel for the plaintiffs. The unanimous (9-0) decision in Brown v. Board of Education, delivered by Justice Earl Warren, overturned Plessy v.
Is segregation legal in the U.S. now?
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 still bars discrimination, and segregated facilities, in the United States. But civil rights groups have feared that Mr. Trump's war on D.E.I. programs has signaled the federal government's willingness to retreat from enforcing it.
What overturned Dred Scott?
The decision of Scott v. Sandford, considered by many legal scholars to be the worst ever rendered by the Supreme Court, was overturned by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and declared all persons born in the United States to be citizens of the United States.
What case overturned segregation?
The Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education occurred after a hard-fought, multi-year campaign to persuade all nine justices to overturn the “separate but equal” doctrine that their predecessors had endorsed in the Court's infamous 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
What is the difference between Brown and Plessy?
The Brown decision was a landmark because it overturned the legal policies established by the Plessy v. Ferguson decision that legalized the practices of “separate but equal”. In the Plessy decision, the 14th Amendment was interpreted in such a way that equality in the law could be met through segregated facilities.
Which two amendments did Plessy argue were violated?
At trial, Plessy's lawyers argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The judge found that Louisiana could enforce this law insofar as it affected railroads within its boundaries. Plessy was convicted.
What happened on June 7, 1892?
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy was arrested for violating Louisiana's Separate Car Act. We all know the Supreme Court's horrific Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, but less familiar is the incredible organizing by the Comité des Citoyens that led to this test case.
Who was Oliver Brown?
Rev. Oliver Leon Brown served as lead plaintiff, one of 13 plaintiffs, in the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case. The Brown decision determined that "In the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place.
Was the 14th Amendment separate but equal?
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protection" under the law to all people.
What president stopped segregation?
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in public places and employment, while President Harry S. Truman previously desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces and federal workforce with Executive Orders in 1948, marking key steps in ending segregation.
What is the most segregated city in the United States?
While studies vary slightly, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit are consistently ranked as the most segregated major cities in America, particularly between Black and White populations, with Milwaukee often topping lists due to stark geographic and socioeconomic divides, though Detroit and Chicago also show extremely high levels of racial separation. These cities, primarily in the Rust Belt, feature deep divisions where racial lines heavily dictate neighborhood demographics, poverty levels, and resource allocation, stemming from historical housing discrimination.
Does the color line still exist today?
Current usage
The phrase circulates in modern vernacular as well as literary theory. For example, Newsweek published a piece by Anna Quindlen entitled "The Problem of the Color Line," about the continuing plague of racial discrimination in the United States. The phrase does not only find use in the print world, either.
When did segregation end in schools?
School segregation legally ended in the U.S. with the Supreme Court's unanimous Brown v. Board of Education decision on May 17, 1954, declaring state-sponsored segregation in public schools unconstitutional, but actual integration took decades of struggle, with significant progress in the South by the late 1960s and early 1970s, spurred by federal civil rights legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
What did Homer Plessy do?
He staged an act of civil disobedience to challenge one of Louisiana's racial segregation laws and bring a test case to force the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation laws. The Court decided against Plessy.
Is Plessy v. Ferguson overruled?
Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) Later overruled by Brown v. Board of Education (1954), this decision embraced the now-discredited idea that “separate but equal” treatment for whites and African-Americans is permissible under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Is there a photo of Homer Plessy?
Ian Wilkinson's mural of what Homer Plessy may have looked like. There are no pictures of him. But on June 10, 1890, the State of Louisiana passed a law called Act 111, or the Separate Car Act.