In 1890, Louisiana passed a law that made African American train riders sit in a different train car from whites. Some citizens wanted to change that law. They came up with a plan. Homer Plessy volunteered to be arrested for breaking the law. His lawyer said that the law broke the 14th Amendment. Both the local court and the state court found Plessy guilty. In 1896, he took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. This is the most important court in the U.S. This court also found him guilty. The judges decided that separate places for blacks and whites were okay as long as the places were equal. 

More laws were passed in the South to keep African Americans and whites apart. These laws stayed in place for over fifty years. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided it was wrong to separate people because of their race.