Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, landmark court case of 1954 in which the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously declared that it was unconstitutional to create separate schools for children on the basis of race. The Brown ruling ranks as one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. At the time of the decision, 17 southern states and the District of Columbia required that all public schools be racially segregated. …showed first 75 words of 1317 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1317 total…desegregate schools with “all deliberate speed,” an ambiguous phrase that allowed many Southern judges to avoid desegregation for years. Linda Brown did not attend an integrated school until 1955, when she had reached junior high school. None of the children of the 20 plaintiffs in the Clarendon County case ever attended integrated schools. Nevertheless, Brown helped launch the modern civil rights movement and led to other court decisions that struck down all forms of legalized racial discrimination.