Which 1896 Supreme Court decision upheld the 'separate but equal' doctrine?

• A. Brown v. Board of Education
• B. Civil Rights Act of 1964
• C. Title IX
• D. Plessy v Ferguson

Answer: (D)

Plessy v. Ferguson is the 1896 Supreme Court decision that upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine. The Court ruled that racial segregation in public facilities was constitutional as long as the separate facilities were equal in quality, effectively giving legal cover to Jim Crow laws for decades. The majority argued that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause wasn’t intended to prohibit all forms of separation, framing it as a matter of public order rather than inequality. A famous dissent warned that the Constitution should protect equal rights, not endorse racial division. This ruling stood until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which held that separate facilities are inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional in public education. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX later addressed discrimination through federal law, but they are not the 1896 decision that upheld segregation.