Final answer:
The U.S. Supreme Court case that justified the segregation of public schools and facilities in Mississippi was Plessy v. Ferguson, which established 'separate but equal' as constitutional. This was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which declared segregated schools unconstitutional.
Step-by-step explanation:
Legal Justification for Segregation in Mississippi's Schools
The U.S. Supreme Court case that provided legal justification for the segregation of Mississippi’s public schools and public facilities was Plessy v. Ferguson. Decided in 1896, this landmark case established the doctrine of “separate but equal”, allowing states to maintain segregated facilities as long as they purported to provide equal services. However, this was overturned by the subsequent 1954 Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional.
Brown v. Board of Education was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, as it ended legal segregation in public schools and dismantled the precedent set by Plessy v. Ferguson. This decision was influenced by a variety of factors including Cold War politics, social science studies, and extensive civil rights advocacy. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education emphasized that segregation in public schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby setting a new standard for racial equality in education.