Opinion of the Board of Education of Topeka

In 1896 the Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Plessy, a black man from Louisiana, challenged the constitutionality of segregated railroad coaches, first in the state courts and then in the U. S. Supreme Court. The high court upheld the lower courts noting that since the separate cars provided equal services, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment was not violated. This case established the "separate but equal" doctrine which became the constitutional basis for segregation.