The case of Plessy v. Ferguson involved a Louisiana state law that required separate railway carriages for white and colored passengers. The court found that the law did not violate the Thirteenth or Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The court ruled that a statute creating a legal distinction between white and colored races based on color does not violate the Thirteenth Amendment or reestablish involuntary servitude. The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from making laws that restrict the privileges or immunities of US citizens, deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or deny equal protection of the laws to anyone within their jurisdiction. However, it did not intend to eliminate distinctions based on race or enforce social equality. Laws that require separation of races in certain places, such as schools, do not necessarily imply inferiority of one race to the other and are within the state's police power. The decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

The court upheld a Louisiana statute requiring the separation of races in public conveyances, stating that it is a reasonable regulation and does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. However, Justice Harlan dissents, stating that the statute requires separate but equal accommodations. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments protect the civil rights of black citizens and prohibit discrimination based on race. State laws that exclude colored citizens from juries are unconstitutional. The Louisiana statute that requires segregation on trains violates personal liberty and does not apply equally to both races. Recent constitutional amendments establish universal civil freedom and equality, and old state court decisions are disregarded. The justice dissents from the majority opinion and judgment, and Justice Brewer did not participate.