Which Supreme Court decision established the 'separate but equal' doctrine?

• A. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• B. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
• C. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• D. United States v. Virginia (1996)

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is how the Supreme Court interpreted equal protection to permit racial segregation. In Plessy v. Ferguson, decided in 1896, the Court held that state laws requiring racial segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment as long as the separate facilities were considered equal in quality. This gave legal sanction to the Jim Crow system, letting segregation persist in schools, transportation, and public spaces for decades. The phrase often associated with this ruling—separate but equal—captures the standard the Court endorsed at the time.

This decision stood until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which rejected the notion that separate facilities could be equal and thus struck down segregation in public schools. The other cases address different issues: one challenged slavery and citizenship before the Civil War, and another focused on gender equality in education, not racial segregation.