Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 17, 1954 that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The case was actually a consolidation of five different cases all challenging the "separate but equal" doctrine established in the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson. This doctrine allowed racial segregation as long as facilities for black and white people were "equal," though in practice, facilities for African Americans were often inferior.

The case was brought to the Supreme Court by a group of parents, led by Oliver Brown, whose daughter, Linda Brown, was denied admission to a white elementary school in Topeka, Kansas. The plaintiffs argued that segregation in public schools created a sense of inferiority among African American children and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." The Court's decision overturned Plessy v. Ferguson in the context of public education and mandated the desegregation of public schools across the United States.

Brown v. Board of Education was a major victory for the Civil Rights Movement, serving as a catalyst for further efforts to end segregation and discrimination in American society. However, the ruling also led to significant resistance in some parts of the country, and full desegregation took many years. Despite this, the case is seen as one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in American history, laying the groundwork for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.