Constitutional LawEqual protection
Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court of the United States · Decided May 17, 1954 · Core case
Full citation
Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
VerifiedQuotes, pinpoints and citation checked word for word against the opinion; facts checked against the opinion before publication. October 16, 2026.
Brown
schoolchild barred from white schoolappellant
Board of Education
school boardappellee
Brief
Facts
These consolidated cases came from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware. A Kansas statute permitted, but did not require, cities of more than 15,000 people to keep separate school facilities for Black and white students. Under that authority, the Topeka Board of Education chose to segregate its elementary schools; the community's other public schools were not segregated. South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware enforced provisions in their state constitutions and statutory codes that required the segregation of Black and white children in public schools. In each case, Black children were denied admission to schools attended by white children under these laws. Through their legal representatives, they sued for admission to their communities' public schools on a nonsegregated basis. They alleged that segregation deprived them of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. By the time the cases reached the Supreme Court, there were findings below that the Black and white schools had been equalized, or were being equalized, in buildings, curricula, teachers' qualifications and salaries, and other tangible factors. The Kansas court had also found that segregation in public education had a detrimental effect on Black children.
Issue
Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even where tangible factors are equal, deprive minority children of equal educational opportunities under the Fourteenth Amendment?
Holding
Segregation of children in public schools solely by race deprives minority children of equal educational opportunities, even when tangible factors may be equal; the plaintiffs and others similarly situated were denied the equal protection of the laws.
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