In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537,[lower-alpha 1] a landmark upholding "separate but equal" racial segregation as constitutional. It was a very significant setback for civil rights, as the legal, social, and political status of the black population reached a nadir. From 1890 to 1908, beginning with Mississippi, southern states passed new constitutions and laws disenfranchising most blacks and excluding them from the political system, a status that was maintained in many cases into the 1960s.