Landmark Cases

Brown v Board of Education

Citation Formats

General Reference

Law Atlas. "Brown v Board of Education." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://law.interactiveatlas.org/landmark-cases/brown-v-board-of-education.

APA Style

Law Atlas. (n.d.). Brown v Board of Education. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://law.interactiveatlas.org/landmark-cases/brown-v-board-of-education

BibTeX

@misc{lawatlas-brown-v-board-of-education,
  author = {Law Atlas},
  title = {Brown v Board of Education},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://law.interactiveatlas.org/landmark-cases/brown-v-board-of-education},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Brown v Board of Education is a 1954 United States Supreme Court case holding that state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and white students are unconstitutional, overturning the separate but equal doctrine of Plessy v Ferguson (1896) as applied to public education. The decision was unanimous, delivered by the Warren Court. A companion enforcement decision the following year, commonly called Brown II (1955), directed that school desegregation proceed with all deliberate speed, a phrase later criticized for the slow pace of compliance it in practice allowed.

Facts

Decision Year

1954 1

Holding

Held that racial segregation of public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, overturning Plessy v Ferguson separate but equal doctrine as applied to public education. 1

Current Status

In force and unchallenged; regarded as one of the most significant rulings in the Court history. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Precedent (Stare Decisis)

Brown expressly renounced Plessy v Ferguson rather than following it, the Supreme Court's own illustration of departing from precedent judged badly reasoned.

Source Stare Decisis (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)