Final answer:
The Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that "separate but equal" schools were unconstitutional, overturning the Plessy v. Ferguson decision and marking a critical point in the Civil Rights Movement.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Supreme Court's decision in the case that addressed whether "separate but equal" schools should be improved to be fair was Brown v. Board of Education. In this landmark case, the court unanimously ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This 1954 ruling overturned the previous Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had allowed for racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.
The decision in Brown v. Board of Education was pivotal in that it helped to dismantle the legal structure supporting segregated schools and was a significant victory in the Civil Rights Movement. It highlighted that even if schools were seemingly equal in resources, the very act of segregation instilled a sense of inferiority among African American children, which was damaging and thus violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.