Brown v. Board of Education

Summary

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that unanimously declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, overturning the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of 'separate but equal.' The case combined five separate lawsuits from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington D.C., with the lead case involving Linda Brown, a third-grader denied admission to her neighborhood school in Topeka, Kansas. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the unanimous opinion, stating that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The decision marked a turning point in American civil rights history, though implementation would face massive resistance in many states.