“We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.”
Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision (1954)
Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the landmark US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka. The parents of 8-year old Linda Brown brought suit against the Topeka, Kansas school district in order to permit their child to attend a neighborhood school that only white children were permitted to attend, rather than having her bused a great distance to to a ‘colored’ school. The court’s decision effectively overturned the 1886 Plessy v Ferguson case in which the court had decided that ‘separate but equal’ was a valid concept for public facilities. Over the intervening years leading up to Brown, several other cases had slowly broadened civil rights, but it was in the unanimous Brown decision that determined that, as far as public education was concerned “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”.
A very good day indeed.