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LAD #39: Brown V. Board of Education

This case marks the beginning of the civil rights movements of the late 1950s to even present day. In Brown v. Board the supreme court unanimously ruled that schools can no longer be racially segregated. This contradicted the previous ruling of 1896, in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, that stated all publicly funded buildings could be separate but equal. This previous case had been deemed ineffective because all to often these separated facilities were not equal, with facilities that were dedicated to African Americans being significantly lower quality. This case was brought up originally because of Linda Brown, a girl barred from an all white school, and only given access to black schools which did not provide an equal education. Her defendants cited the 14th amendment, stressing that the State could not deny any person the equal right to protection of the laws, specifically the equal treatment under those laws which Linda Brown was not receiving. The Kansas District Court acknowledged the poor situation, yet upheld the former ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson. However, once Brown appealed, the supreme court sided differently. It had multiple cases coming forward about equal education opportunities and addressed them all with the Brown v. Board ruling, stating that segregated schools are inherently unequal, and therefore must be de-segregated. While this case did not accomplish all that would eventually be done, it laid a solid framework for decades of change to come.

Brown v Board:
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MLK's March on Washington for Equal Rights:
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