What was the main argument of Plessy in Plessy v. Ferguson

Answer: The state of Louisiana enacted a law that required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Plessy--who was 1/8 black - -took a seat in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train. He refused to move to the car reserved for blacks and was arrested.

Explanation: The Supreme Court ruled that the "separate but equal" provision of the Louisiana law was constitutional. The case established this principle of segregation until it was overturned in 1954. After this ruling by the Supreme Court, Jim Crow Laws, laws that discriminated against African Americans, spread across the US and were heavily enforced in the South.

Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U. S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for blacks. Rejecting Plessy's argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Supreme Court ruled that a law that "implies merely a legal distinction" between whites and blacks was not unconstitutional. As a result, restrictive Jim Crow legislation and separate public accommodations based on race became commonplace.