Editing Separate but equal (section)

===''Plessy v. Ferguson''===
{{main|Plessy v. Ferguson}}
The legitimacy of such laws under the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth amendment]] was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1896 case of ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896). The ''Plessy'' doctrine was extended to the public schools in ''[[Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education]]'', 175 U.S. 528 (1899).{{cn|date=January 2022}}

[[Image:WhiteTradeOnlyLancasterOhio.jpg|thumb|"We cater to white trade only". A restaurant in [[Lancaster, Ohio]], in 1938. ]]
[[File:Negro drinking at "Colored" water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma by Russell Lee.jpg |thumb|A "colored" drinking fountain in [[Oklahoma City]], 1939]]
In 1892, [[Homer Plessy]], who was of mixed ancestry and appeared to be white, boarded an all-white railroad car between New Orleans and Covington, Louisiana. The conductor of the train collected passenger tickets at their seats. When Plessy told the conductor he was {{fraction|7|8}} white and {{fraction|1|8}} black, he was informed that he had to move to a coloreds-only car. Plessy said he resented sitting in a coloreds-only car and was arrested immediately.{{cn|date=January 2022}}

One month after his arrest, Plessy appeared in court before Judge John Howard Ferguson. Plessy's lawyer, Albion Tourgee, claimed Plessy's 13th and 14th amendment rights were violated. The [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] abolished slavery, and the 14th amendment gave equal protection to all under the law.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|year=2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHj_0R2rbxAC&q=%22Equal+Protection+Clause+similarly%22+encyclopedia&pg=PA153|title =Equal protection of the laws|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of American Law|publisher=Infobase|last=Failinger|first=Marie|editor-first=David Andrew|editor-last=Schultz|pages=152–53|isbn=9781438109916|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724001052/https://books.google.de/books?id=EHj_0R2rbxAC&pg=PA153&dq=%22Equal+Protection+Clause+similarly%22+encyclopedia&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR3OXkq-TqAhUQiIsKHfiVCyEQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Equal%20Protection%20Clause%20similarly%22%20encyclopedia&f=false|archive-date=July 24, 2020}}</ref>

The Supreme Court decision in ''Plessy v. Ferguson'' formalized the legal principle of "separate but equal". The ruling required "railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in that State to provide equal, but separate, accommodations for the white and colored races".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Louisiana Separate Car Act, 1890 · Separate not Equal: Plessy v. Ferguson's Influence on Modern Discrimination · The Making of the Modern U.S.|url=http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/plessy-v--ferguson-1896/louisiana-separate-car-act--18|access-date=2021-01-22|website=projects.leadr.msu.edu|archive-date=2020-11-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119211128/http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/plessy-v--ferguson-1896/louisiana-separate-car-act--18|url-status=dead}}</ref> Accommodations provided on each railroad car were required to be the same as those provided on the others. Separate railroad cars could be provided. The railroad could refuse service to passengers who refused to comply, and the Supreme Court ruled this did not infringe upon the 13th and 14th amendments.

The "separate but equal" doctrine applied in theory to all public facilities: not only railroad cars but schools, medical facilities, theaters, restaurants, restrooms, and drinking fountains. However, neither state nor Congress put "separate but equal" into the statute books, meaning the provision of equal services to non-whites could not be legally enforced. The only possible remedy was through federal court, but costly legal fees and expenses meant that this was out of the question for individuals; it took an organization with resources, the [[NAACP]], to file and pursue ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]].''{{cn|date=January 2022}}

[[File:JimCrowCar2.jpg|left|thumb|1904 caricature of "White" and "Jim Crow" rail cars by [[John T. McCutcheon]]]]
Equal facilities were unusual. The facilities and social services offered to African Americans were almost always of a lower quality than those offered to white Americans, if they existed at all. Most African-American schools had less public funding per student than nearby white schools; they had old textbooks, discarded by the white schools, used equipment, and poorly paid, prepared, or taught and trained teachers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Black-white student achievement gap persists|publisher=[[NBC News]]|date=July 14, 2009|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31911075}}</ref> In addition, according to a study conducted by the [[American Psychological Association]], black students are emotionally impaired when segregated at a young age.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=John P.|url=http://archive.org/details/socialscientists0000jack|title=Social scientists for social justice : making the case against segregation|date=2001|publisher=New York : New York University Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-8147-4266-2|location=|pages=113}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Kenneth B. Clark|url=http://archive.org/details/KennethClarkTestimony|title=Kenneth Clark Testimony|date=1951|publisher=|isbn=|location=|pages=16Sa|language=English}}</ref> In Texas, the state established a state-funded law school for white students but none for black students. As previously mentioned, the majority of counties in Florida during the 1930s had no high school for African-American students. African Americans had to pay state and local taxes that were used for the benefit of whites only. (See [[Florida A&M Hospital]] for an example.)

Although the "Separate but Equal" doctrine was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' (1954), the implementation of the changes this decision required was long, contentious, and sometimes violent (see [[massive resistance]] and [[Southern Manifesto]]). While modern legal doctrine interprets the 14th amendment to prohibit ''explicit'' segregation on the basis of race, societal issues surrounding racial discrimination still remain topical (see [[racial profiling]]).{{cn|date=January 2022}}