Final answer:
The court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 abolished the concept of 'separate but equal,' ruling that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.
Step-by-step explanation:
The court case that abolished the concept of separate but equal was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). This landmark decision was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, where the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the segregation of public schools based on race was unconstitutional. Prior to this, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' had been established by the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, which allowed racial segregation in schools and other public facilities. The Brown v. Board decision overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, stating that 'separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,' thus ending de jure segregation in American public schools.
The justices based their decision partly on social science research, including the work of Kenneth and Mamie Clark, which showed that segregation had a detrimental psychological effect on African American children. This historic case set the stage for the desegregation of schools and was an essential step towards equality in the U.S. education system and beyond.