9.3: Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Brown v. Board of Education is a landmark civil rights test case in U.S. history. It directly challenged segregation. School segregation was one of the most pervasive, persistent, and damaging forms of discrimination present throughout the United States in the midtwentieth century (and it remains a signiscant problem today). Schools, especially in the South, were explicitly designed to be unequal facilities. White communities routinely provided inadequate educational opportunities to African Americans while seeking to keep white and black children from being educated in the same schools. Black communities throughout the South worked hard to close the gap and provide quality education from elementary school to university. These communities made important gains, such as creating Historically Black College and Universities, or HBCUs. For many African Americans, though, the ultimate goal was to gain equal access to existing, mostly white, educational institutions. Brown v. Board of Education was a critical ruling that furthered that goal.