In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine of "separate but equal" was constitutional. That meant that racial segregation was legal in public places, including trains and other modes of transportation, schools, drinking fountains, and other public spaces. This doctrine meant that the United States, particularly in the south, maintained separate public accommodations and schools for African-American and white people. Though the schools that African-American children attended were supposed to be equal, they were in fact not equal. Instead, African-American children in the south attended schools with far fewer resources than white schools. The doctrine of separate but equal was not overturned until the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, in which the court ruled that separate but equal schools were inherently unequal (meaning that even if these schools had the same resources, the fact that there were some schools for white people and some for African-Americans created inequality).
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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