Linda Carol Brown was a little kid in Topeka, Kansas, in the early 50s. To reach her school she had to walk through a rail yard, then cross a busy street, then take a bus. She could have gone to Sumner Elementary, which was much closer, except for one thing. Sumner was a white school; Linda Carol Brown was black. Her father went to court with the backing of the NAACP.
The case was “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.” (Note Kansas, not Mississippi or Alabama.) The US. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 to overturn “Plessy v. Ferguson,” the 1896 case that said “separate but equal” did not violate the equal protection clause. The Court opinion said that separating children on the basis of race “generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.”
Linda Carol Brown and I were almost the same age.
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