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Plessy v. Ferguson

(Encyclopedia)Plessy v. Ferguson, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protect...

Shaw, Lemuel

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Lemuel, 1781–1861, American jurist, b. Barnstable, Mass. After a career in the Massachusetts state legislature, Shaw served as chief justice for the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts (18...

Ferguson

(Encyclopedia)Ferguson, city (2020 pop. 20,359), St. Louis co., E Mo., a suburb of St. Louis; inc. 1894. It is primarily residential. In Aug. 2014, the shooting of an...

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.

(Encyclopedia)Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954. Linda Brown was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka because she was black. When, com...

Ferguson, Adam

(Encyclopedia)Ferguson, Adam fûrˈgəsən [key], 1723–1816, Scottish philosopher and historian. He was professor of philosophy at the Univ. of Edinburgh (1759–85). His Essay on the History of Civil Society (17...

Ferguson, Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Ferguson, Patrick, 1744–80, British army officer in the American Revolution. He invented an early breech-loading rifle in 1776. Ferguson fought at Brandywine and Charleston before he was assigned to...

Harlan, John Marshall, 1833–1911, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

(Encyclopedia)Harlan, John Marshall, 1833–1911, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1877–1911), b. Boyle co., Ky., grad. Centre College, 1850. Admitted to the bar in 1853, he served in...

Ferguson, Sir Alex

(Encyclopedia)Ferguson, Sir Alex (Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson), 1941–, Scottish soccer player and manager. He entered the full-time professional game in 1964, playing for Dunfermline Athletic; he played (1957â...

Ferguson, James Edward

(Encyclopedia)Ferguson, James Edward, 1871–1944, governor of Texas (1915–17), b. Bell co., Tex. After an adventurous youth he rose from poverty to become a lawyer, large landowner, and banker. Although unknown ...

Ferguson, Sir Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Ferguson, Sir Samuel, 1810–86, Irish poet and antiquary. Ogham Inscriptions in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland (1887) is his best-known work on Irish antiquities. His major poetic works, which deal wit...