Seventy years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

Brown v. Board of Education centered on Linda Brown, a young Black student denied admission to her neighborhood elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, due to her race. The ruling overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had permitted state-sponsored segregation in public education under the concept of "separate but equal."

The decision is considered a significant milestone in the nation’s civil rights history, as it paved the way for the courts to end racial segregation in public facilities and accommodations.

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