Roberts v. City of Boston decision upholds school segregation in Boston.

In a unanimous decision written by chief justice Lemuel Shaw, the Supreme Judicial Court establishes what comes to be called the “separate but equal” doctrine after a trial at the Suffolk County Court House. The trial began on December 4, 1849, with In its decision, the court declares “The good of both classes of schools will be best promoted, by maintaining the separate primary schools for colored and for white children . . . This prejudice, if it exists, is not created by law, and probably cannot be changed by law.”