Paul Jones

Mrs. Quinn
G.A.L.R.E.
December 6, 2010
Unit 3 Lesson 19 – Reviewing and Using the Lesson
1. What was the “separate but equal” doctrine? How did the Supreme Court justify the doctrine
in Plessy v. Ferguson?
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States Constitutional law that justified systems
of segregation. Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were
allowed to be separated by race, on the condition that the quality of each group's public
facilities were to remain equal.
2. With what arguments did the Court abandon the doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education?
De jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment of the United States Constitution.
3. How has the equal protection clause been interpreted since 1954?
The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution, provides that "no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws".