Plessy v Ferguson [Plessy v Ferguson]
a court case in 1896 which was decided by the US ↑Supreme Court. It stated that ↑segregation on trains was legal if black and white people received equal services. Southern states soon also used this idea of ↑separate but equal in schools, public buildings, etc. The ↑ruling (= decision) was replaced in 1954 by the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of ↑Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, which stated that segregation in schools was illegal.
Useful english dictionary. 2012.