"Separate but equal" was the doctrine underpinning segregation of the races in America until the civil rights rulings and laws of the mid-1900s. Accomodations for black and white people may have been separate, but they were not even close to equal.
That's no surprise, but the story of the Supreme Court case that allowed segregation is full of twists and turns. Steve Luxenberg follows them in his book Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation.
An example of some of the surprises: people who were anti-slavery but pro-segregation. The author joins us to fill out the story.