His effort to become the Rosa Parks of his day did not succeed. In the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling in 1896, the Supreme Court declared it was legal for a state to force segregation on the basis of race.

The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that state racial segregation laws didn't violate the Constitution as long as the facilities for the races were of equal quality. Sponsor Message ...

The landmark ruling that resulted in the case, Plessy v. Ferguson, came to be regarded as one of most shameful decisions in the court’s history as well as one of the most consequential.