An African-American man drinking from a segregated water fountain
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark constitutional law passed by the US Supreme Court in 1896 that upheld racial segregation in the United States under the "separate but equal" doctrine. The case originated when Homer Plessy, a biracial man from Louisiana, sat on the white car of a segregated train and was subsequently arrested. The "separate but equal" doctrine of the law led to African-Americans being granted inferior versions of white facilities, including poor schools and broken-down water fountains and home equipment. The Civil Rights movement was born in response to the passage of the law, and Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 with support from the NAACP.