Plessy v Ferguson

Plessy v. Ferguson is arguably one of the most important precedents that was established during the debate on civil rights. This land mark court case occurred in 1896 and was not overturned until 1954 with Brown v. The Board of Education. After having sat in a "whites only" part of a train Plessy was asked to move from his seat, when he refused he was then arrested. From this a land mark court case was born.

Plessy-
In defense of Plessy his lawyer chose to pull in arguments from the thirteenth and fourteenth amendment in regards to equality. These amendments state that everyone be treated by legal protection under the law. Therefore by forcing him to sit on a separate part of the train he was being robbed of his fourteenth amendment right to equality.

Ferguson-
Ferguson argued that this was not the case at all, and Plessy should be forced to pay the fine for sitting in the "whites only" section of the train. In an effort to back this up they used past court cases regarding segregation. They argued that it is not the laws fault if there is prejudice, the issue of segregation was to be purely legal. The prejudice that spawns from separate but equal is not the court's fault, and it is only their duty to uphold the current precedent.Check out the link below to find each sides opinion!

Decision-
 After a seven-to-one decision the court ruled in favor of Ferguson. It was decided that Plessy was in fact breaking the law. Justice Brown declared, "We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it" (wikipedia). 
   Plessy v Ferguson proved that at the time America's legal system was still blinded by discrimination. The decision to uphold separate but equal effected blacks for decades until it was finally overturned. This link provides a detailed look into the court case.