May 17th: On This Day in 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education
May 17, 1954: The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education, deciding that racial segregation in public educational facilities is unconstitutional. The case centered on Linda Brown, an African American girl, who had been denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.
This was a landmark decision, which overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws that established separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. The Warren Court's unanimous (9-0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 9:19AM
Reader Comments (4)
Oh how I remember that case in law school. It was one of the best briefs I ever wrote. I wonder if the bigoted anti same sex marriage crowd would call this judicial activism.
Equality for ALL.
Bigotry is not a flattering trait.
STOP THE HATE.
Separate is inherently unequal. These are words that the CA Supreme court should keep in mind when they're debating whether or not the people of the state should be able to deny rights to a group of people based solely upon their status as members of that group.
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