As educators, one cannot say how significant and important "Brown vs. Board of Education"" was to the educational system of the United States. Without this challenge to ones civil rights, young children would still be segregated and not given the same rights as other colored children in America. Even after the thirteenth was ratified and put the end to what we know as slavery, states enacted laws which contradicted the constitution. These laws known as the Jim Crow laws were used to prevent people of color from using the same facilities, riding the same buses, and going to the same schools as whites. http://www.uscourts.gov/EducationalResources/ConstitutionResources/LegalLandmarks/HistoryOfBrownVBoardOfEducation.aspx. There were several cases that went before the United States Supreme Court before Brown, and they all had significance in regards to equal right in the education system for colored people. Murry v. Maryland, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada, Sweat v. Painter, finally Mclaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher Education were the platform of equal rights in education for colored people. Each of those cases led to Brown being brought to forefront of the Supreme Court. It is hard to believe that just less than 60 years ago there was segregation in the schools. On May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. The Brown case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement, inspiring education reform everywhere and forming the legal means of challenging segregation in all areas of society. http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/. .
Brown was actually the culmination of five cases from different jurisdictions. Brown represented (Kansas), Briggs v Elliot (South Carolina), Bulah v. Gebhart Belton v. Gebhart (Delaware), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virgina), and Bolling v.