Plessy versus Ferguson
[(ples-ee, fur-guh-suhn)]
A case decided by the Supreme Court in the 1890s. The Court held that a state could require racial segregation in public facilities if the facilities offered the two races were equal. The Court's requirement became known as the “separate but equal” doctrine. It was overturned by the Court in 1954 in Brown versus Board of Education.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.