Final answer:
The 1896 Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, upheld the principle of 'separate but equal,' legitimizing racial segregation provided facilities were of equal quality. This decision supported de jure segregation under state law, a policy that remained until the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954.
Step-by-step explanation:
Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Ruling
In the groundbreaking 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that upheld the principle of "separate but equal." The court ruled that the segregation of races through state law did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, provided that the separate facilities for blacks and whites were of equal quality. This case legitimized the discriminatory practice of racial segregation under the guise of providing equal services and facilities across races.
Homer Plessy, a man of mixed racial heritage, was arrested for sitting in a Whites-only railway car. He argued that this segregation violated the equal protection principle, but the Supreme Court disagreed. The outcome codified de jure segregation, setting a legal precedent that permitted states and private businesses to enforce racially segregated public accommodations.
This ruling had significant and widespread consequences, reinforcing the system of Jim Crow laws which maintained racial segregation in all aspects of life, such as schools, transportation, and public buildings. The concept of "separate but equal" remained standing until it was finally overturned by the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," thus signaling the end of de jure segregation in education.