Brown v. Board of Education

The Court held that racial segregation of public schools violates equal protection, overruling Plessy in public education.

Overview

Black children in five states were denied admission to white schools under compulsory segregation laws. Chief Justice Warren wrote for a unanimous Court that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, drawing on social science evidence and rejecting Plessy's premise. Brown ordered desegregation with all deliberate speed the following year in Brown II, touching off massive resistance across the South and a decade of civil rights struggle. Perhaps the most consequential decision of the twentieth century, it redefined the meaning of equal protection, restored the Court's moral authority after decades of retreat, and changed American democracy itself.