The U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Homer Plessy reinforced a policy called _____. a) desegregation b)separate but unequal c)equal protection d)separate but equal

d) separate but equal

Extra: The case you are referring to is Plessy v. Ferguson, which was decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1896. This case involved Homer Adolph Plessy, who was of mixed racial heritage, and his act of sitting in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train. The Supreme Court's ruling in this case established the doctrine that public accommodations could be segregated by race but still be considered equal.

The "separate but equal" doctrine was based on the understanding that segregation was not necessarily discriminatory if the separate facilities provided to each race were of comparable quality. Unfortunately, in practice, the facilities and services provided to African Americans were often inferior to those provided to whites, leading to significant inequalities.

This legal principle of "separate but equal" became a cornerstone for many states to justify segregation in all aspects of public life, including in education, transportation, and public facilities, under the state laws known as Jim Crow laws. The doctrine stood for nearly 60 years until it was finally overturned by the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, in which the Supreme Court declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. The Brown v. Board of Education case was a major victory for the civil rights movement, marking the beginning of the end for the "separate but equal" policy in the United States.