The 1950s

What year did the case take place? 1954

Who was involved in the case? Linda Brown and her parents and the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

What was the case about? Linda Brown was a eight year old African American girl who lived in Topeka Kansas in the 1950s. While her white neighbors went to a nearby grade school, Linda had to travel to her school on a long bus and miles away from her home. These two schools were segregated to separate whited and black students from attending the same school. The Topeka Board of Education had created a school system with seperated schools for white and black students. Linda's parents sued in a federal distrcit court and the court found that Topeka had provided fairly equal conditions in both the white and black schools. This policy of "seperated but equal" was developed from the court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. In the court cause Plessy v. Ferguson, there was no violation of Homer Plessy's 13th and 14th Amendment rights, that were created after the Civil War. However, in Brown v. Board of Eduaction. the Court had found that seperation law for African American schools were not equal to the white schools.

What was the Consituitional issue involved that allowed it to be appealed to the Supreme Court? Does racial sepregation of children in public schools deprive minority children of equal protection of laws under the Fourteenth Amendment?

How did the Supreme Court rule? The court ruled unanimously to overturn the decision that was concluded in Plessy v. Ferguson. They concluded that in the field of public education, the doctrine of "seperate but equal" has no place. The decision emphazied "good faith compliance" and urged the ending of public school segregation "with all deliberate speed". This also begins the forced integration of U.S. schools