(1954), a decision by the U.S.
Supreme Court of five cases challenging segregation laws requiring separate public schools for whites and blacks, a landmark of American constitutional history, and a symbol for the cause of civil rights. The case took its name from the lawsuit brought on behalf of Linda Brown, a pupil enrolled in the Topeka, Kansas, school system. Chief Justice
Earl Warren wrote for a unanimous Court that the doctrine of "separate but equal" first stated in
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (though the Court did not specifically overrule Plessy).
Thurgood Marshall led the legal team that won Brown.
