The object of the [fourteenth a]mendment was
undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two
races before the law, but in the nature of things, it could
not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon
color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political,
equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms
unsatisfactory to either. laws permitting, and even
requiring, their separation, in places where they are liable
to be brought into contact, do not necessarily imply the
inferiority of either race to the other, and have been
generally, if not universally, recognized as within the
competency of the state legislatures in the exercise of
their police power.