Community Corner
This Day In History: May 17
The US Supreme Court decided the case Brown vs. Board of Education, declaring racial segregation unconstitutional.
On this day in 1954, the monumental Supreme Court case known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation. The case specifically dealt with Linda Brown, an African American girl who had been denied admission to her local elementary school because of the color of her skin.
Prior to the decision of Brown v. Board, a court ruling in the 1896 case, Plessy v. Ferguson, justified segregation in public facilities as long as the accomodations were "separate but equal." But in Linda Brown's situation, the white school she was attempting to attend was far superior and miles closer to her home than the nearest school for black children.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took up the case and African-American lawyer (and future Supreme Court Justice) Thurgood Marshall led Brown's legal team. On May 17, 1954, the nation's highest court ruled that not only was the "separate but equal" doctrine unconstitutional in Linda Brown's case, it was unconstitutional in all cases because educational segregation stamped an inherent badge of inferiority on African American students.
