Plessy v. Ferguson decision allows segregation in public schools.

Supreme Court, by a 7 to 1 margin, finds against Homer Plessy, described as a “Creole of color,” who was arrested for taking a seat in a railroad car reserved for whites. In its decision, which upholds what comes to be called the doctrine of “separate but equal” accommodations, the court cites the 1850 Roberts v. City of Boston case as a precedent. In his dissent, Justice John Marshall Harlan writes, “Our Constitution is color blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”