Linda Brown, who as a little girl was at the center of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, has passed away at the age of 76. The decision struck down the doctrine of "separate but equal" in public education in the United States, saying that it was illegal to segregate schools. The Brown named in the case was actually Linda's father, Oliver, and the case decided before the Supreme Court actually included five separate suits brought against five states and Washington, D.C.
In 1950, Oliver Brown took his daughter Linda to the all-white school in their integrated neighborhood in Topeka, Kansas to try to enroll her, and the school denied Linda enrollment. She instead attended a school that required a walk through a rail yard and across a busy street followed by a bus ride. By the time the Supreme Court decided the case, she was in junior high.
Oliver Brown's attempt to enroll Linda was part of an organized effort to identify test cases that could be used to challenge school segregation and the separate but equal doctrine. The case was ultimately argued before the Supreme Court by Thurgood Marshall, then the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and later a Justice himself. School desegregation is a fight that started long ago, but one that has been fought over and over. The Little Rock Nine, Ruby Bridges, and James Meredith all stood on the front lines of school desegration, as did countless other students. Law suits are still brought against school districts with practices that create de facto segregation. The Browns themselves were part of another lawsuit in the late 1970s battling school segregation in Topeka.
Rest in Peace, Linda Brown.
Linda Brown outside the neighborhood elementary school that denied her enrollment.
