Seventy years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
Brown v. Board of Education centered on Linda Brown, a young Black student denied admission to her neighborhood elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, due to her race. The ruling overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had permitted state-sponsored segregation in public education under the concept of “separate but equal.”
The decision is considered a significant milestone in the nation’s civil rights history, as it paved the way for the courts to end racial segregation in public facilities and accommodations.
This map at the Justice Department pinpoints areas where progress has been made in desegregating public facilities, May 22, 1963 in Washington. (AP Photo/Bill Allen, File)Fifth graders of the West Greene Elementary School in Snow Hill, N.C., study history in an integrated classroom with teacher Charlaron May, March 5, 1969. The school is the first in the eastern Carolina community to be fully integrated. Friday, May 17, 2024, marks 70 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separating children in schools by race was unconstitutional. On paper, Brown v. Board of Education still stands. In reality, school integration is all but gone, the victim of a gradual series of court cases that slowly eroded it, leaving little behind. (AP Photo/Perry Aycock, File)Mothers carrying protest signs accompany their children to Graymont Elementary School in Birmingham, Ala., which was opened on an integrated basis, Sept. 4, 1963. Friday, May 17, 2024, marks 70 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separating children in schools by race was unconstitutional. On paper, Brown v. Board of Education still stands. In reality, school integration is all but gone, the victim of a gradual series of court cases that slowly eroded it, leaving little behind. (AP Photo, File)Linda Brown Smith, left, of Topeka, Kansas, and Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director of the NAACP, are shown on the steps of the South Carolina State House during ceremonies observing the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in Columbus, S.C., May 17, 1979. Brown was the plaintiff in the case that resulted in the 1954 landmark ruling in favor of school desegregation. (AP Photo/Lou Krasky)This May 8, 1964 file photo shows Linda Brown Smith standing in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan. The refusal of the public school to admit Brown in 1951, then nine years old, because she is black, led to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the “separate but equal” clause and mandated that schools nationwide must be desegregated. From the time Americans roll out of bed in the morning until they turn in, and even who they might be spending the night with, the court’s rulings are woven into daily life in ways large and small. (AP Photo, File)
