This passage is from the court's majority in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896:

We consider the underlying [error] of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it.

Based on this passage, what was the court's opinion about segregation in the United States?

It was permitted as long as both races agreed that facilities were of equal quality.

It was allowed as long as the facilities provided to both races were equal.

It was illegal because it stripped black citizens of their natural rights.

It was damaging because it labeled the black race as inferior.

Respuesta :

Based on the passage given, the court's opinion about segregation in the United States was allowed as long as the facilities provided to both races were equal. The correct answer is B.

The correct answer is: "It was allowed as long as the facilities provided to both races were equal".

Plessy v. Ferguson is a case from 1896 which, back then, let to the enactment of a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court .

The decision allowed the proliferation of segregated public facilities under the belief that, if facilities were equal in quality, such system was not violating the Equal Protection Clause that guaranteed equality of rights for all US citizens. Such clause had been included in the 14th Amendment to the US Consitution, issued in 1868 during the Reconstruction Era.

Through this decision the US Supreme Court accepted the constitutionality of the denominated "separate but equal" lemma and, as a consquence, of segregation.

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