Read the following excerpt taken from the us supreme court case plessy v. ferguson (1896).

the case coming on for a hearing before the supreme court, that court was of opinion that the law under which the prosecution had was constitutional, and denied the relief prayed for by the petitioner. ex parte plessy, 45 la. ann. 80. whereupon petitioner prayed for a writ of error from this court, which was allowed by the chief justice of the supreme court of louisiana.
mr. justice brown, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.
this case turns upon the constitutionality of an act of the general assembly of the state of louisiana, passed in 1890, providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races. acts 1890, no. 111, p. 152.
the first section of the statute enacts
"that all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this state shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger coaches by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations: provided, that this section shall not be construed to apply to street railroads. no person or persons, shall be admitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned to them on account of the race they belong to."

the supreme court’s ruling in plessy v. ferguson was problematic because?

This excerpt outlines the important precedent set by the court case Plessy vs. Ferguson. Plessy vs. Ferguson establishes the idea that "separate but equal" facilities are constitutional (aka legal). Essentially, this Supreme Court ruling allows for private and public places to be segregated. The ruling of Plessy vs. Ferguson resulted in segregated facilities all over the country including schools, restauraunts, bus stops, bathrooms, water fountains, etc.

This case is not overturned until 1954, in which the case Brown vs. Board reverses this idea and declares that separate but equal facilities violates the 14th amednment rights of African-American citizens.

an individual’s sex (i.e., whether they are a male or female) is determined by the sex chromosomes. most people have two sex chromosomes, one that is inherited from their mother and one that is inherited from their father. typically, females have two x chromosomes (xx) and males have one x chromosome and one y chromosome (xy). conditions caused by changes (“mutations”) in genes located on the x chromosome are considered x-linked.

x-linked recessive inheritance

most x-linked conditions are recessive. this means that in a person with two x chromosomes (most females), both copies of a gene (i.e., one on each x chromosome) must have a change or mutation whereas in a person with one x chromosome (most males), only one copy of a gene must have a mutation. a female with a mutation in one copy of a gene on the x chromosome is said to be a “carrier” for an x-linked condition. a male with a mutation in a gene on the x chromosome is typically affected with the condition. because females have two copies of the x chromosome and males have only one x chromosome, x-linked recessive diseases are more common among males than females. however, x-linked recessive diseases can occur in both males and females.

for x-linked recessive disorders, an unaffected carrier mother who has a mutation in a gene on the x chromosome can transmit either the x chromosome with this mutation or a “normal” x chromosome to her children. if the father is unaffected, none of her daughters will be affected and all of her daughters will be unaffected—since they will inherit at least one normal x chromosome from their father. however, each daughter will have a 50% chance of being an unaffected carrier like her mother and a 50% chance of both x chromosomes being normal.