Editing Plessy v. Ferguson (section)

===Harlan's dissent===
[[File:JudgeJMHarlan.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|Justice John Marshall Harlan became known as the "Great Dissenter" for his fiery dissent in ''Plessy'' and other early civil rights cases.]]
Justice [[John Marshall Harlan]] was the lone dissenter from the Court's decision. Harlan strongly disagreed with the Court's conclusion that the Louisiana railcar law did not imply that black people were inferior, and he accused the majority of being willfully ignorant on the issue.
{{Blockquote
|text=Every one knows that the statute in question had its origin in the purpose, not so much to exclude white people from railroad cars occupied by blacks, as to exclude colored people from coaches occupied by or assigned to white persons. ... The thing to accomplish was, under the guise of giving equal accommodation for whites and blacks, to compel the latter to keep to themselves while traveling in railroad passenger coaches. No one would be so wanting in candor as to assert the contrary.
|source=''Plessy'', 163 U.S. at 557 (Harlan, J., dissenting).<ref name="ReferenceA">Quoted in part in {{harvp|Chemerinsky|2019|loc=§&nbsp;9.3.1, p. 761}}.</ref>
}}
To support his argument, Harlan pointed out that the Louisiana law had an exception for "nurses attending children of the other race". This exception allowed black women who were [[nanny|nannies]] to white children to be in the white-only train cars.{{sfnp|Amar|2011|p=85}} Harlan said that this showed that the Louisiana law allowed black people to be in white-only cars only if it was obvious that they were "social subordinates" or "domestics".{{sfnp|Amar|2011|p=85}}

In a now-famous passage, Harlan forcefully argued that even though many white Americans of the late 19th century considered themselves superior to those of other races, the U.S. Constitution was nonetheless "color-blind" regarding the law and civil rights.{{sfnp|Chemerinsky|2019|loc=§&nbsp;9.3.1, p. 761}} 
{{Blockquote
|text=The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. ... But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.
|source=''Plessy'', 163 U.S. at 559 (Harlan, J., dissenting).<ref name="ReferenceA">Quoted in part in {{harvp|Chemerinsky|2019|loc=§&nbsp;9.3.1, p. 761}}.</ref>
}}
Harlan predicted the Court's decision would eventually become as infamous as its 1857 decision ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]'', in which the Court had ruled that black Americans could not be citizens under the U.S. Constitution and that its legal protections and privileges could never apply to them.