Brown vs Topeka Case (jan 1, 1951 – may 17, 1954)

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In 1951, the parents of Lina Brown appealed for her to attend Summer Elementary school in Topeka, Kansas
They did this as the school was much closer to her house than the one she attended
Linda was black and the school was for white pupils only
Linda’s parents (supported by the NAACP) took their case to the local court
It was rejected due to the Plessy vs Ferguson legal precedent
NAACP persuaded Linda Brown’s parents to take their case to the Supreme Court, where it was combined with 4 other similar cases
In December 1952, it was decided that a retrial of Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka would be needed → judges had failed to reach a verdict
Before the retrial began, a new judge named Earn Warren joined the Supreme Court and became Chief Justice
As the case restarted, NAACP lawyers (led by Thurgood Marshall) argued that separate schools were damaging AA children psychologically even if the schools were equally funded
On 17th May 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that school segregation was unconstitutional
Finally, the legal precedent of Plessy vs Ferguson had been broken and schools had to desegregate.
A year after this decision, a second Supreme Court ruling decided that school desegregation should happen ‘with all deliberate speed’

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