What did the Supreme Court rule in Brown v. Board of Education?

In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This landmark decision, delivered in 1954, overturned the earlier ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the "separate but equal" doctrine that allowed state-sponsored segregation. The Court found that segregated schools were inherently unequal, and therefore, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This case was a significant step forward in the Civil Rights Movement, as it demonstrated the judiciary's commitment to ending institutionalized racism and ensuring that African American children had the same educational opportunities as their white counterparts. The ruling provided a legal foundation for further challenges to segregation and discrimination in various aspects of American life.