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Plessy v. Ferguson: How racial segregation became law

Listen 35:30

STEVE LUXENBERG, a former Washington Post editor, tells the history around Plessy v. Ferguson, the disastrous 1896 Supreme Court decision that upheld a Louisiana law mandating separate railroad cars for white and black Americans. This ruling made racial segregation legal as “separate but equal” and set the stage for Jim Crow laws. Luxenberg’s new book is, Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation.

