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Brown v. Board of Education
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George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James Nabrit, Jr. smile together in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building. Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Brown v. Board of Education The justices who decided Brown v. Board of Education Nettie Hunt and her daughter Nickie sit on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building, holding a newspaper with the headline "High Court Bans Segregation in Public Schools."
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Brown v. Board of Education (of Topeka) summary
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George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James Nabrit, Jr. smile together in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building.
Brown v. Board of Education (From left) Lawyers George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit, Jr., celebrating outside the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C., after the Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, May 17, 1954.

Brown v. Board of Education

United States law case
Written by
Brian Duignan
Brian Duignan is a senior editor at Encyclopædia Britannica. His subject areas include philosophy, law, social science, politics, political theory, and religion.
Brian Duignan
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Brown v. Board of Education, case in which, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously (9–0) that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits the states from denying equal protection of the laws to any person within their jurisdictions. The decision declared that separate educational facilities for white and African American students were inherently unequal. It thus rejected as inapplicable to public education the “separate...

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