Homework Assignment - Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and the expansion of segregation

The United States Supreme Court handed down its first decision regarding the constitutionality of the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause and state segregation laws, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.

      Three amendments - 13th, 14th & 15th - are referred to as the Civil War Amendments as they are all passed and ratified by the so-called Radical Republicans who controlled Congress in the years after the Civil War.  The 14th amendment (1868) in particular was passed to limit the power of the states.  In the 10 years after the war, "Reconstruction" was the name given for the period when the former confederate states had their powers greatly restricted. As the states one by one were allowed to be released from direct northern control, the former confederate states passed the "Black Codes" or "Jim Crow Laws" (Segregation) that greatly limited the rights of the former slaves and their descendants.

After doing the reading, please submit an analysis of Plessy v. Ferguson and the ruling up-holding the constitutionality of segregation laws in no more than 600 words.