Henderson v. United States (1950) was a US Supreme Court decision that eliminated segregation in dining cars in railroads.
An African-American passenger was in first-class on his way from Washington to Atlanta as part of his duties as an employee of the US. When he arrived to the dining area, the tables reserved for black people had been occupied by white people (as no blacks had shown up), then he could not sit there. He accepted to wait until the tables were free but no one called him as they had promised and he was not served.
The US Supreme court decided that the "separate but equal" clause was not applicable in this situation, as the railroad company had failed to provide the same quality of service to the black passenger, who had bough the same-class ticket as the other passengers that were able to have dinner that night.
