Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that took place in 1954. It was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement as it declared state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and white students to be unconstitutional. This decision overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. The lead plaintiff in the case was Oliver Brown, a Black man whose daughter was denied admission to an all-white school in Topeka, Kansas.

The unanimous decision by the Supreme Court was a major turning point in the fight against segregation in the United States. The ruling stated that segregation in public education created a sense of inferiority among Black children and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Despite the ruling, the implementation of desegregation in schools was met with fierce resistance in many parts of the country, leading to years of struggles and legal battles. Brown v. Board of Education remains one of the most significant legal decisions in American history and a symbol of the ongoing fight for equality and civil rights.