In the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court decided that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case was brought by a group of African American parents who argued that the segregation of their children in public schools was inherently unequal and that it violated their constitutional rights.
In a unanimous decision handed down on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and that segregation in public schools denies African American children equal protection under the law. The Court overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which had allowed for racial segregation in public facilities as long as the separate facilities were deemed equal in quality.
The Brown v. Board of Education decision was a landmark moment in the Civil Rights Movement and paved the way for the desegregation of public schools and other institutions in the United States. It also inspired other movements for equal rights and helped to establish the principle of equal protection under the law for all Americans.