Which 1896 court case upheld Jim Crow laws by allowing 'separate but equal'?

• A. Brown v. Board of Education
• B. Plessy v Ferguson
• C. Dred Scott v. Sandford
• D. Roe v. Wade

Answer: (B)

The central idea tested is understanding how the law initially allowed racial segregation in the United States. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court ruled that state laws requiring racial separation were constitutional as long as the separate facilities were deemed equal in quality. This established the "separate but equal" doctrine and gave legal sanction to Jim Crow laws, effectively maintaining racial segregation in public life for decades. The decision framed the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause as permitting racial separation if equality of facilities was claimed, which allowed segregated schools, trains, and other public spaces to operate under the guise of equality. This doctrine endured until it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which held that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional. By contrast, the other cases deal with different issues: Dred Scott v. Sandford concerns citizenship and slavery in the pre-Civil War era; Roe v. Wade concerns abortion rights; Brown v. Board of Education later dismantled segregation rather than upheld it.