Provides a detailed account of the legal drama that established the "separate but equal" doctrine. Details the postwar Reconstruction era; the legal issues involved in Plessy v. Ferguson; the spread of discriminatory Jim Crow laws; the effects of segregation on African Americans; and the efforts to overturn Plessy.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• How to Use This Book
• Research Topics for Defining Moments: Plessy v. Ferguson
• NARRATIVE OVERVIEW
• Prologue
• Chapter One: Reconstruction in the South
• Chapter Two: The Rise of Jim Crow
• Chapter Three: Homer Plessy Takes a Stand
• Chapter Four: Separate but Equal
• Chapter Five: Living in Terror
• Chapter Six: The Civil Rights Movement
• Chapter Seven: The Legacy of Plessy v. Ferguson
• BIOGRAPHIES
• Henry Billings Brown (1836-1913) Supreme Court Justice Who Wrote the Majority Opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson
• Rodolphe Desdunes (1849-1928) Creole Civil Rights Activist Who Challenged Louisiana's Separate Car Law
• John Howard Ferguson (1838-1915) Louisiana Judge Who Became the Defendant in Plessy v. Ferguson
• John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) Supreme Court Justice Who Wrote the Famous Plessy v. Ferguson Dissent
• Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) Attorney Who Helped Overturn Plessy v. Ferguson and First African-American Supreme Court Justice
• Louis Martinet (1849-1917) Black Newspaper Publisher and Civil Rights Advocate
• Francis Nicholls (1834-1912) Governor and State Supreme Court Justice of Louisiana
• Homer Plessy (1862-1925) New Orleans Resident Who Volunteered to Challenge Segregation in Louisiana
• Albion W. Tourgée (1838-1905) Republican Writer, Civil Rights Activist, and Lawyer Who Argued Plessy v. Ferguson
• PRIMARY SOURCES
• Albion Tourgée Describes Reconstruction-Era Violence in the South
• Louisiana Passes the Separate Car Law
• A Kentucky Newspaper Claims That Segregation Benefits Blacks
• A Black-Owned Newspaper Criticizes Segregation
• Plessy's Lawyers Present Their Arguments in a Legal Brief
• Justice Brown Announces the Majority Opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson
• Justice Harlan Delivers a Scathing Dissent
• George H. White Makes His “Defense of the Negro Race” Speech
• The NAACP Demands Equal Rights for African Americans
• An Alabama Man Experiences Daily Humiliations under Segregation
• A Georgia Native Remembers Jim Crow Tragedies
• A Black Reporter Recalls a Lynching
• President Barack Obama Discusses Racial Progress
• A Journalist Considers Obama's Impact on Race in America
• Important People, Places, and Terms
• Chronology
• Sources for Further Study
• Bibliography
• Photo and Illustration Credits