1954Unit 3 · Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

Brown v. Board of Education

The constitutional question

Fourteenth Amendment — Equal Protection Clause

The holding

Race-based school segregation is unconstitutional: separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, overturning Plessy.

Live legislation that raises this case (1)

H.R. 40 · 119thCommittee

Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act

Brown established that government-imposed racial harm demands a remedy — the commission asks what remedy remains owed for harms older than segregated schools.