Advancing the Dream: 8 notable Civil Rights victories
3. Brown v. Board of Education
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that school segregation violated the U.S. Constitution, overturning their 1895 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
The decision was given to a combination of five different lawsuits filed in school districts in Delaware, Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Several states refused to enforce the ruling for several years and numerous public schools grappled with “de facto” segregation.
Nevertheless, as noted by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, “striking down segregation in the nation’s public schools provided a major catalyst for the civil rights movement, making possible advances in desegregating housing, public accommodations, and institutions of higher education.”
“The decision gave hope to millions of Americans by permanently discrediting the legal rationale underpinning the racial caste system that had been endorsed or accepted by governments at all levels since the end of the nineteenth century. And its impact has been felt by every American,” the LDF continued.
