The main ruling in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) established the legal doctrine of "separate but equal." The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Louisiana's segregation laws, allowing for racial segregation in public facilities as long as the separate facilities for African Americans and whites were considered equal. This decision legitimized Jim Crow laws and institutionalized racial discrimination across the United States for decades. The ruling was a significant setback for civil rights and was ultimately challenged and overturned by the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which declared that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal.