Brown decision ended segregationist policies but not practices
Sixty years ago, 13 families sued the board of education of Topeka, Kansas, on behalf of 20 students to end state-supported school segregation. The case would be referred to by its lead plaintiff Oliver Brown, a father, welder and assistant pastor asked by his local NAACP chapter to join the class action lawsuit that would change the landscape of public education for years to come.
Tuesday marked the 57th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. The Board of Education decision that declared state-supported segregation unconstitutional and separate schools “inherently unequal.” The decision paved the way for the Civil Rights Movement and a period of bold and brazen protests of America’s racially discriminatory policies.
Brown is a reminder of what can be accomplished if a few ordinary citizens challenge a law they know to be wrong. But it also demonstrates that it isn’t enough to end segregationist polici