A Legal History of Brown and a Look to the Future

In May 1954, the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous 9-0 opinion in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ( Brown I, 1954). In holding that de jure segregation in public schools based on race violated the Equal Protection Clause, the Court prepared American society for a larger concept, namely that children in public schools are entitled to equal educational opportunities. Thus, this article examines the Court’s 50-year journey toward eliminating the vestiges of past de jure segregation in public school systems and the movement to unitary status for such districts.