Plessy v. Ferguson 'Separate But Equal' Doctrine Enforced Through Pervasive Violence

The 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision legitimating 'separate but equal' defined American public life in the early twentieth century. In practice, separate facilities were never equal. The doctrine was enforced not through state inspection of equality but through violence and economic coercion. The Supreme Court did not overturn Plessy until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.