What doctrine did the Supreme Court uphold in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)?

• A. Separate but unequal.
• B. Equality before the law.
• C. Due process.
• D. Separate but equal.

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is the legal standard the Supreme Court used to address racial segregation. The Court ruled that state laws requiring separation of the races in public facilities could be constitutional if the separate facilities were equal in quality. This created the doctrine of separate but equal, which allowed Jim Crow-era segregation to persist for many decades. In practice, the facilities for African Americans were rarely equal to those for whites, but the ruling framed segregation as permissible under the Constitution as long as “equal” facilities existed on paper. This doctrine stood until it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education, which held that segregation is inherently unequal and unconstitutional in public education.