End with a timeline activity to help students place the Plessy decision into a broader historical context and review the key themes from the lesson. Place students into small groups, and give each group the following list of key events. (Note that this list is out of chronological order. The list can also be shortened for purposes of time or differentiation.)

• Plessy v. Ferguson
• Montgomery Bus Boycotts
• Dred Scott decision
• Greensboro Sit-Ins
• Regents of the University of California v.  Bakke
• Passage of the 14th Amendment
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
• Little Rock Nine
• Thurgood Marshall’s appointment to the Supreme Court
• Civil Rights Act of 1964

Have students work together to place the events into chronological order. They can look up these terms using the website BlackPast.org or another searchable historical database. Students can make their timeline on a poster or using software such as Canva or Google Jamboard. For each event, the students should write the date, a description of the event, and an explanation of its importance.

End with a class discussion to summarize the lesson.

• 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?