Which 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional?

Brown v. Board of Education was the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

The decision rejected the “separate but equal” doctrine as applied to education. Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous opinion, stating that segregated schools were inherently unequal because separation based on race deprived Black children of equal educational opportunities.

The case combined several lawsuits, including one brought by Oliver Brown on behalf of his daughter Linda Brown, who had to travel past a white school to attend a segregated Black school in Topeka, Kansas. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, led by attorneys including Thurgood Marshall, argued the cases.

Brown did not immediately end school segregation. Southern resistance and slow federal enforcement meant that desegregation continued for years. The ruling nonetheless became a central legal victory of the Civil Rights Movement and helped establish Marshall’s path to becoming the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice.