Who had the greatest impact on U. S. History between 1877-1900? ..

Question

...Positive or Negative

Answer 1

Supreme Court Justice Henry Billings Brown and six of his fellow justices on the Supreme Court when they decided the landmark case Plessy v Ferguson in May of 1896.  This decision, which made segregation the law of the land under the doctrine of Separate but Equal, paved the way for Jim Crow Laws and great injustice to African-Americans.  It created a racial schism that is still affecting us over 100 years after the decision and over 50  years after Brown v Topeka Board of Education repealed the Separate but Equal doctrine.  This was the most significant event to define a period in which much of historical note took place.