Justice John Marshall Harlan: The Great Dissenter 1833-1911

During his 33 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice John Marshall Harlan dissented
in some of the court's most important civil rights cases.

In one of the most famous dissents in history, Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the
constitutionality of segregation, Harlan wrote: "Our constitution is color-blind, and
neither knows or tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens
are equal before the law."

Though Harlan was born in Boyle County to a prominent slaveholding family, and was
once a slaveholder himself, he fought for the Union during the Civil War after graduating
from Centre College and earning his law degree at Transylvania.

He was often chastised for contradicting himself politically, but Harlan always
maintained that the law afforded him the right to change his mind — and his support for
equal rights after the Civil War never waned.