Supreme Court allows Mississippi to segregate Chinese American student in Lum

The Supreme Court rules in Gong Lum v. Rice on November 21, 1927, that Mississippi may require Martha Lum, a Chinese American child, to attend a segregated school for nonwhite students rather than a white public school. The Court treats the case within the separate-but-equal framework and allows state school segregation to apply beyond Black-white categories. The ruling shows how Jim Crow systems classified and excluded Asian American children as well as Black children. The decision expands the history of school segregation beyond a binary frame and shows how racial hierarchy operated across communities.