Place students into pairs, and give each pair one of the following primary sources to read and analyze. Each source examines one or more effects of the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson decision on American society. (Note that the sources vary in their length and level of complexity, with consequences that are more and less concrete; do preview the source set and consider how to differentiate the activity for individual learners or your group as a whole.)

  • Editorial: “A Strange Decision”
  • Political Cartoon: “The Union As It Was” by Thomas Nast
  • Letter: Frederick Douglass on Education
  • Grant of Posthumous Clemency to Homer Plessy
  • Poem: “The Jim Crow Car” by Walter Brooks
  • Majority Opinion of the Supreme Court: Tape v. Hurley
  • Video: Clark Doll Experiment

Students should use the OPCVL document analysis protocol to analyze their assigned source, and should prepare a short oral presentation to the class to summarize their analyses. After each pair shares their analysis, ask the class:

  • What were the immediate and long-term consequences of Plessy v. Ferguson on Black Americans? On other people of color? On White Americans? On the U.S. overall?
  • In what ways and why was the “separate but equal” doctrine detrimental to American society as a whole?

Document Analysis: Consequences of Plessy v. Ferguson