Which Supreme Court case established the principle of "separate but equal" in American schools?

The principle of "separate but equal" was established in the landmark Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. This case arose from a challenge to a Louisiana law that mandated racial segregation in public facilities, specifically in railroad cars. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law, ruling that as long as the separate facilities for the races were equal, segregation did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

This decision provided a legal justification for racial segregation and discrimination in various public spaces, including schools, for decades. The notion of "separate but equal" became a cornerstone of Jim Crow laws, reinforcing systemic inequality.

In contrast, Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 later overturned this principle, declaring that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional. This ruling was a significant step in the Civil Rights Movement, leading to the desegregation of public schools and challenging the foundational premise established by Plessy v. Ferguson.