Gong Lum v. Rice: the ruling that solidified segregation for non-white students

On this day in 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Gong Lum v. Rice, upholding Mississippi’s authority to enforce racially segregated public schools under the “separate but equal” doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

The case arose when Martha Lum, a 9-year-old Chinese American girl, was barred from attending a white public school in Bolivar County, Mississippi, because she was classified as “colored” under state law. Her father, Gong Lum, filed suit, arguing that she should be allowed to attend the school for white children rather than being forced into a school for students of color.

The Court rejected the challenge, ruling that the state had the constitutional power to segregate public education based on race and that Lum’s access to a “colored” school satisfied the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This landmark ruling reinforced segregationist policies and broadened their application beyond Black and white students to include other non-white groups, perpetuating systemic racial discrimination in American public education.