The Supreme Court struck down segregation in interstate public transportation because it created an improper burden on interstate commerce.

Justice Stanley F. ReedReed, Stanley F.;Morgan v. Virginia[Morgan v. Virginia] wrote the opinion for the 7-1 majority, striking down a Virginia law that mandated segregation in bus transportation. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People urged the Supreme Court to use a nineteenth century civil rights law to end the practice of segregation in interstate bus travel as an improper restraint on interstate commerce. Following Hall v. DeCuir[case]Hall v. DeCuir[Hall v. DeCuir] (1878), the Court struck down a Virginia law and, by implication, those of all the other southern states. As a practical matter, segregation in bus transportation continued as the southern officials simply ignored the Court unless a ruling was directed specifically at their jurisdictions. Justices Hugo L. Black, Felix Frankfurter, and John Rutledge concurred. Justice Harold H. Burton dissented. Justice Robert H. Jackson, active in the Nuremberg trials, did not participate.Desegregation;Morgan v. Virginia[Morgan v. Virginia]Commerce clause;Morgan v. Virginia[Morgan v. Virginia]

Civil Rights Acts

Commerce, regulation of

Common carriers

Hall v. DeCuir

Louisville, New Orleans, and Texas Railway Co. v. Mississippi

Plessy v. Ferguson

Race and discrimination