What is Separate but equal?
[[File:Educational separation in the US prior to Brown Map.svg|thumb|right|300px|{{Center|Map of the United States, showing school segregation laws before the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education}}]] '''Separate but equal''' was a [[legal]] [[doctrine]] that existed in the [[United States]] for 58 years. It was based on the [[United States Supreme Court]] decision ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]''. Here the Court ruled that [[racial segregation]] was not in [[wikt:violation|violation]] of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], as long as the [[Race (sociology)|racially]] separate [[wikt:facility|facilities]] were equal.<ref name=HistMatt>{{cite web |url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5485/ |title=Separate But Equal: The Plessy v. Ferguson Case |publisher=History Matters |access-date=2 April 2016}}</ref> The Court also said segregation was not [[discrimination]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/separate-but-equal.html |title=Separate but Equal: The Law of the Land |publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of American History |access-date=2 April 2016}}</ref> Segregation in public [[wikt:accommodation|accommodation]]s, [[transportation]] and [[school]]s was [[legal]]ly [[wikt:justify|justified]] by ''Plessy'' until it was overturned in 1954 by ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]''.<ref name=HistMatt/> == Background == After the [[American Civil War]], the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] controlled [[United States Congress|Congress]] passed three [[amendment]]s to the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] called the [[Reconstruction Amendments]].<ref name=raPBS>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/reconstruction-amendments/ |title=Slavery by Another Name; Reconstruction Amendments |publisher=PBS |access-date=2 April 2016}}</ref> The first was the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] which abolished [[slavery]] in the United States.<ref name=raPBS/> The second was the