Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
The racial segregation of Americans became a matter of law with the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. The case concerned Louisiana native Homer Plessy being denied first-class seating on a streetcar because of his race. With Plessy, the Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which made it a crime for an individual to deny “the full and equal enjoyment of any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color.” Spurred by White fears of integration during Reconstruction, several cases came before the courts challenging Black rights to such privileges. Under Plessy, the Supreme Court upheld the Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races.” White and Black people w...