Final answer:
The Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education stated that 'separate is not equal' in public schools, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson, and declaring school segregation unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the landmark ruling of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court reached the conclusion that separate is not equal in public schools. This decision came down in 1954 and it constituted a critical milestone in the civil rights movement. The Court unanimously overturned the 'separate but equal' doctrine established by the Plessy v. Ferguson case as it applied to public education. Chief Justice Earl Warren stated in the majority opinion that even schools with equal facilities and funding could not be truly equal if they were segregated by race. This pivotal case consolidated five separate lawsuits sponsored by the NAACP and ultimately declared that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
Thurgood Marshall, who was the chief counsel for the NAACP, used sociological studies to demonstrate the damaging psychological effects of segregation on African American children, helping to establish that segregation was inherently unequal. Furthermore, this ruling had a far-reaching impact on de jure segregation across the United States, setting the stage for further civil rights advancements.