In 1896, the court case of Plessy v Ferguson upheld the legality of the "separate but equal" mindset in the US between whites and blacks. All but one judge voted in favor of the separate but equal ruling. Judge Harlan was the one judge that disapproved, and wrote out his argument in hopes to sway any of the other judges or any American citizens. However, all of Judge Harlan's time and effort to try to sway people went to waste because everybody in America at the time was still in favor of slavery and being the dominant race.
     Judge Harlan's argument obviously was not a popular one in 1896 due to the fact that there were still very many people who either owned slaves illegally or still had strong feelings that black people were meant to be slaves. Obviously, we have made a lot of ground in the past hundred years and in todays world I believe the majority of people would side with Judge Harlan and his opinion on this court case. There have been many national events since 1896 that have really helped blacks get their feet under them so that they have an equal playing field in political matters.
     I believe that Judge Harlan was a little ahead of his time. It may have been a little early in 1896 to fight for complete equality and peace between blacks and whites. This is obvious because he was the only one that thought it could work in 1896; however, I believe he would have been a very powerful political figure if he made his point in a year like 1964. During this time, Judge Harlan's argument would have been very powerful because blacks would have had many more rights and legislation such as the Civil Rights Act that would give his argument some leverage.