separate but equal doctrine

The "separate but equal" doctrine was a legal principle established in the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. It upheld the idea that racial segregation was permissible as long as facilities for different races were designed to be equally quality and separate. In practice, however, this often led to unequal conditions for minority groups, especially African Americans. The doctrine reinforced racial segregation by legalizing separate facilities in public places like schools, transportation, and accommodations, until it was overturned by the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.