Brown v. Board of Education was a collection of cases argued by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund dating back to the 1930's. This body of cases sought to establish the precedent necessary to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which established the concept of separate but equal in the law. Brown was important because it struck down Plessy and affirmed that "separate but equal: was unconstitutional. It made segregation in schools and public institutions unconstitutional.