Five consolidated cases challenged Reconstruction-era public-accommodations bans on racial discrimination. The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment reaches only 'state action,' not private discrimination by hotels, theaters, or railroads. The decision hastened the collapse of Reconstruction, cleared the field for Jim Crow, and forced Congress to rely on the Commerce Clause (rather than the Fourteenth Amendment) when it finally passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — a reliance vindicated in Heart of Atlanta Motel.