Overview
The [[brown-v-board-of-education|Brown V Board Of Education]] case was a culmination of years of efforts by [[national-association-for-the-advancement-of-colored-people|NAACP]] lawyers, led by [[thurgood-marshall|Thurgood Marshall]], to challenge the [[separate-but-equal|separate but equal]] doctrine established by the [[piers-v-ferguson|Plessy v. Ferguson]] case in 1896. The case was sparked by the experiences of [[linda-brown|Linda Brown]], a young African American girl who was forced to travel long distances to attend an all-black school in [[topeka-kansas|Topeka, Kansas]]. The [[supreme-court|Supreme Court]]'s unanimous decision, written by [[earl-warren|Chief Justice Earl Warren]], stated that [[segregation|segregation]] in public schools was unconstitutional, paving the way for the [[civil-rights-movement|Civil Rights Movement]] of the 1950s and 1960s. The decision was influenced by the [[psychological-studies|psychological studies]] of [[kenneth-clark|Kenneth Clark]] and [[mamie-clark|Mamie Clark]], which demonstrated the harmful effects of segregation on African American children. The case has been cited as a precedent in numerous other landmark cases, including [[loving-v-virginia|Loving v. Virginia]] and [[swann-v-charlotte-mecklenburg-board-of-education|Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education]].