Boyd and Hattie Asher lived in Leslie County, Kentucky. They wanted their seven-year-old son, Bruce, to attend the local public white school. Principal Roy Huffman refused Bruce’s admission on account of his perceived race. The Ashers sued. Huffman argued the state constitution would not allow Bruce to attend because he was Black. The Ashers argued that Bruce was white. The judge found that because Bruce’s maternal great-grandmother was an enslaved Black woman, Bruce had “an appreciable admixture of colored blood,” and he was legally considered Black. Ancestry mattered more to the court than appearance. Per the so-called “one drop rule,” anyone with any amount of Black heritage was considered Black. The court ruled in Huffman’s favor saying Bruce was not entitled to attend the school.