In the 1898 case of Turner v. Wilkes County Commissioners, an African American man named William Turner sued the county commissioners of Wilkes County, North Carolina for racial discrimination. He claimed that his constitutional rights were violated when he was denied access to a public school because of his race. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the county commissioners, stating that while it is unlawful to deny any citizen equal protection under law based on their race or color as per Fourteenth Amendment, this does not mean all citizens are entitled to exactly same facilities and privileges without distinction or differentiation. They held that separate but equal facilities did not violate constitutional rights - a principle later overturned by Brown v Board of Education in 1954 which declared segregation inherently unequal.

The dissenting opinion in the Turner v. Wilkes County Commissioners case argued that the majority's decision to uphold a law requiring voters to pay a poll tax before voting was unconstitutional. The dissenters believed this law violated citizens' right to vote, as it effectively disenfranchised those who could not afford to pay the tax. They contended that such laws were designed specifically with discriminatory intent and disproportionately affected poor and minority voters, thus violating equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Furthermore, they disagreed with the majority's assertion that states have broad powers in determining voter qualifications; while acknowledging states do have some discretion in setting these rules, they maintained this power is not absolute and must still comply with constitutional requirements for fairness and equality.