Linda Brown had to travel a mile every
day to get to her non-white school even
though she lived near a white school
the Browns attempted to enroll Linda at
the white school but were turned away as
were several other black families in
Brown versus Board of Education a group
of 13 parents including Linda's dad
Oliver Brown sued the Topeka School
Board on behalf of their 20 children in
federal district court alleging that
segregation deprived them of equal
protection of the laws under the 14th
amendment a panel of three district
court judges ruled for the school board
finding that the facilities for black
students were largely equal to those for
white students the court cited the 1896
supreme court precedent Plessy versus
Ferguson which validated separate but
equal accommodations in public
transportation but acknowledged the
detrimental effect segregation had on
non-white children Brown appealed
directly to the US Supreme Court which
granted certiorari and consolidated
Brown with four other cases from South
Carolina Virginia Delaware and the
District of Columbia to determine
whether state-sponsored racial
segregation in public schools could
continue the plaintiffs were
representatives of black children who
were refused admission to white public
schools under existing racial
segregation laws the plaintiffs offered
sociological data as proof that
segregated schools resulted in black
children feeling inferior to their white
peers the plaintiffs argued this type of
educational system should not be
sanctioned and sought desegregation the
court ruled for the plaintiffs reasoning
that even assuming equality between the
schools the separation itself was a
violation of the Equal Protection Clause
of the Fourteenth Amendment Chief
Justice Warren writing for a unanimous
court said we conclude that in the field
of public education the doctrine of
separate but equal has no place separate
educational facilities are inherently
unequal
Warren's set aside originalist arguments
about the 14th amendment we're marking
on the metamorphosis that had occurred
in public education since
the passage of the amendment then
education was provided mainly on a
private basis and almost exclusively to
white children States now educated all
children Warren further relied on the
sociological data offered by the
plaintiffs regarding the lasting feeling
of inferiority created in black children
by segregated schools finding that the
inherent inequality deprived them of
equal protection this was a landmark
case because previous segregation cases
had focused on the lack of equality
between the separate black and white
facilities the brown plaintiffs set out
to prove that there's no such thing as
separate and equal separation alone
creates unacceptable inequality through
this ruling the court overturned Plessy
which had served as the legal basis for
racial segregation for more than 50
years
foreseeing obstacles to implementation
the Supreme Court asked the Attorney
General's of all states with segregated
schools to submit plans for
desegregation the brown case served as a
major milestone in the civil rights
movement and became one of the legal
foundations for challenges to
segregation in other areas of American
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