Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on May 17, 1954, consolidating challenges brought on behalf of Black schoolchildren in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware who had been denied admission to public schools attended by white children under state laws requiring or permitting racial segregation. The lead plaintiff, Oliver Brown, sued the Topeka, Kansas board of education after his daughter Linda was refused enrollment at a nearby white elementary school. Writing for a unanimous Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren held that racially segregated public schools violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, overturning the separate but equal doctrine set out in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). A follow up ruling in 1955 directed that desegregation proceed with all deliberate speed, and implementation met sustained, sometimes violent, resistance in many states over the following years.
Facts
Key ProvisionDecided unanimously by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954, it held that state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and white students are inherently unequal and therefore violate the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection, overturning the separate but equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) in public education and providing the legal foundation for the wider dismantling of state-mandated racial segregation. 1 Classification
Document TypeCourt Ruling or Judicial Opinion 1 Connections
Rejected Here
Brown expressly overturned Plessy's separate but equal doctrine as applied to public education.
Source Brown v. Board of Education (National Archives)
Associated With
This source names United States directly: "decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on May 17, 1954, consolidating challenges brought on behalf of Black schoolchildren in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware who had been..."
Source Brown v. Board of Education (National Archives)
Drafted By
Source Brown v. Board of Education (Wikipedia)
Influenced
Source Brown v. Board of Education (National Archives)
Influenced By
Plessy v. Ferguson's 'separate but equal' doctrine stood as constitutional law until Brown v. Board of Education unanimously overruled it in 1954.
Sources
1. Brown v. Board of Education (National Archives)
U.S. National Archives and Records AdministrationDocument type, description
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on May 17, 1954, consolidating challenges brought on behalf of Black schoolchildren in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware who had been denied admission to public schools attended by white children under state laws requiring or permitting racial segregation.
- Associated With: Plessy v. Ferguson
- Influenced: Majority Rule and Minority Rights
View the Source Wikidata: Brown v. Board of Education
Wikidata Q875738, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)View the Source Brown v. Board of Education (Wikipedia)
Drafted By: Earl Warren, Decision section
The decision consists of a single opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, which all the justices joined.
In Group: United States Supreme Court Decisions of 1900 to 1999, Lead paragraph
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, even if the segregated facilities are equal in quality.
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