“Separate but equal” struck down
5/17/1954
On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered this unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Court found that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools violated the 14th Amendment. The decision marked the end of the "separate but equal" precedent set by the Supreme Court nearly 60 years before in Plessy v. Ferguson. Although this decision is commonly known as “Brown v. Board” this decision was actually six cases grouped together. Selected pages are shown.
National Archives, Records of the Supreme Court of the United States
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Educational Resources
- Teaching With Documents: Order of Argument in the Case, Brown v. Board of Education
- Teaching With Documents: Documents Related to Brown v. Board of Education Frontiers in Civil Rights: Dorothy E. Davis, et al. versus County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia
