Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in 1954 that struck down the doctrine of "separate but equal" in public education. The case originated from a lawsuit filed by the parents of Linda Brown, a young African American girl who was denied admission to an all-white elementary school in Topeka, Kansas.

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared that separate educational facilities for black and white students were inherently unequal and unconstitutional. This ruling marked a significant turning point in the civil rights movement and paved the way for desegregation of schools across the country.

The decision in Brown v. Board of Education was a major victory for the fight against racial segregation and discrimination in the United States. It laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement of the 1960s and inspired further legal challenges to segregation in other areas of society.