Plessy drew marginal news coverage despite its monumental consequences

Evidence

On May 18, 1896, the New York Times buried the Plessy decision in a third-page column focusing on railroad news, reflecting the case’s marginal news coverage and the nation’s marginal awareness of its significance. The Plessy decision legalized what was already assumed by the New South and America: separate but unequal, and branded it equal for courts and consciences to stop antiracist resistance. The social conscience of America was a significant political factor during this period. It was the beginning of the Progressive era. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 737

Categorization

• QUESTION: What does the burial of Plessy in a railroad-news column say about how landmark constitutional rulings get noticed only retrospectively? Worth tracing how other world-changing rulings (Dred Scott, Brown) were covered at the time.
• SEED: Article angle: ‘the day the papers buried equal protection’ — the gap between a ruling’s immediate footprint and its historical weight.