cover image Separate and Unequal: Homer Plessy and the Supreme Court Decision That Legalized Racism

Separate and Unequal: Homer Plessy and the Supreme Court Decision That Legalized Racism

Harvey Fireside. Basic Books, $26 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-7867-1293-9

One of the Supreme Court's ugliest decisions is Brown's backstory: the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, which enshrined the term ""separate but equal."" Dana professor of politics emeritus at Ithaca College, Fireside offers texture to the story behind New Orleans shoemaker Plessy's brave effort to seek civil rights while tracking the course of the case through the Supreme Court and history. It was overturned in Brown, but Fireside considers progress since then to be halting. Former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial wrote the introduction. (Apr.)