In 1896 the Supreme Court ruled that Jim Crow segregation laws were not unconstitutional in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. This is the case that Brown v. Board of Education would eventually overturn but not until six decades of Jim Crow laws had been endured. Who was Plessy? Who was Ferguson? And how on earth did the Supreme Court reach its conclusions?
Don Wildman's guest today is Dr Michael Ross, historian of constitutional history with a focus on Reconstruction era at the University of Maryland.
Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Freddy Chick and Tomos Delargy.
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