In the 1927 case of Gong Lum et al. v. Rice et al., a Chinese-American girl named Martha Lum was barred from attending a white public school in Mississippi due to her race, despite being born in the United States and paying taxes that supported these schools. Her father, Gong Lum, sued on her behalf arguing that this violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S Supreme Court upheld Mississippi's decision to segregate its schools by ruling against Martha Lum. The court reasoned that it was within states' rights to regulate their own public education systems and enforce racial segregation policies as long as they provided separate but equal facilities for all races under Plessy v Ferguson precedent (1896). This case highlighted how "separate but equal" doctrine was used not only against African Americans but also other non-white ethnic groups during this era.

In the Gong Lum et al. v. Rice et al., 1927 case, there was no recorded dissenting opinion from any of the Supreme Court Justices. The unanimous decision held that a Mississippi school board's decision to bar a Chinese-American girl from attending a white high school did not infringe upon her Fourteenth Amendment rights, as separate schools for different races were considered constitutionally permissible under the "separate but equal" doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). This ruling reinforced racial segregation in education until it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.