Brown v. Board of Education

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in one of, if not, its pivotol case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Linda Brown, a third grade student in Topeka, Kansas was forced to walk a mile everyday to catch a bus to a blacks only elementary school, eventhough there was a whites only elementary school. Oliver Brown, her father, and 13 other black parents filed suit against the local board of education with help from the NAACP. Of course, this case was lost in state court on the grounds that there were two schools, one black and one white, so this was not a violation of the 14th Amendment. The NAACP appealed this case to the Supreme Court and finally, on May 17, 1954, the court ruled in favor of Linda Brown, saying that the blacks only school were indeed inferior to white school. The justices voted nine-to-one.