What landmark case established the "separate but equal" doctrine?

The case that established the "separate but equal" doctrine is Plessy v. Ferguson. Decided in 1896, this landmark Supreme Court ruling upheld state laws that permitted racial segregation in public facilities. The case arose when Homer Plessy, an African American man, was arrested for refusing to leave a whites-only railroad car in Louisiana. The Supreme Court ruled that as long as the separate facilities for the races were equal, segregation did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision provided a legal justification for racial segregation and discrimination that persisted for decades, reinforcing Jim Crow laws throughout the southern United States. The doctrine established by this case was ultimately overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which found that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.