On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy versus Ferguson separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads, upholding the principle of racial segregation. Presented is a narrative of the results of laws that mandated separate accommodations on buses and trains, in hotels, theaters, and schools, laws in effect until the Supreme Court overturned the Plessy decision on May 17, 1954 in Brown versus the Board of Education. Also educator and political leader Mary McLeod Bethune died on May 18, 1955; her career is traced, especially the founding of what is now Bethune-Cookman College and her service in the Franklin Roosevelt administration.