Cases & Legislation

"Justices of the United States Supreme Court have heard and ruled on many cases that have dealt with race”questions such as who has the right to use the courts where can black and white people live what public schools can a person attend and how can education be equal for everyone? For the courts rulings from earlier cases set a precedent for current and future rulings. Sometimes the Court even states when an earlier Court's ruling was just flat out wrong or misguided. The five cases below were decided by the U.S. Supreme Court and dealt with how the Court interpreted race and who has rights under the law."

"Louisiana enacted the Separate Car Act which required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892 Homer Plessy – who was seven-eighths Caucasian – agreed to participate in a test to challenge the Act. He was solicited by the Comite des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) a group of New Orleans residents who sought to repeal the Act. They asked Plessy who was technically black under Louisiana law to sit in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train."