In this court case, the NAACP challenges the Topeka school system on behalf of Linda Brown and her family. Linda had to walk a mile through a railroad crossing to get to her black public school, although a white school was only 7 blocks away. On her behalf, the NAACP argued that by separating the schools, the school system is inherently denying black children the best education available to them. Therefore, their policy of "separate but equal" was inherently unequal, and could never be equal while segregated. However, the local court ruled according to the precedent set by Plessy v. Ferguson, which stated that separate but equal facilities were allowed. Brown and the NAACP appealed to the Supreme Court, who overturned the decision nationwide and declared that segregation in schools based on race was unconstitutional.
