The Supreme Court case that legalized segregation was Plessy v. Ferguson, which was decided on May 18, 1896. The case upheld the principle of "separate but equal" facilities, which provided legal justification for segregation on trains and buses, and in public facilities such as hotels, theaters, and schools. The ruling allowed states to impose Jim Crow laws and relegated African Americans to second-class citizenship. The Plessy decision was overruled by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education on May 17, 1954, which declared segregation in public education unconstitutional.