What years of time was the separate but equal doctrine the law of the land in the US?

Short answer: “Separate but equal” was the law from 1896–1954.

Long answer: Separate but “equal” was the law of the land from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) through Brown v. Board of Education (1954) 

I put “equal” in quotes because the so-called “equal” facilities offered to white and black students in the south made a mockery of the word. Behold so-called “equal” water fountains:

 A white school in Halifax County, VA, during the 1930s:

And a black school in Halifax, VA at the same time:

In Brown v. Board, the public school district in Topeka, Kansas refused to let Oliver Brown’s daughter enroll at the nearest school to their home - a white school - and instead required her to enroll at a black school further away. He participated in a class action lawsuit against the School Board of Topeka, KS, When U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled for the School Board, relying on the Plessy precedent, Brown and the NAACP- represented by future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall- appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that “separate but equal” was not Constitutional for US public schools, or educational facilities. This led to further rulings against Jim Crow laws, and was a major influence to the civil rights movement.

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