Separate But Equal?

In the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the United States Supreme Court affirmed racial segregation as national policy, declaring that “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional. The case arose from a Louisiana law providing for separate railway cars for whites and blacks. Many such “Jim Crow” laws were passed in southern states, at least in part to stop poor whites from making political and economic alliances with blacks that could threaten the established order in the South.

Exhibit Items

1. Virginia Public Schools
2. Books and notebooks, desk, ink bottle, and quill
3. Child’s dress and hat