Linda Brown, Symbol of Landmark Desegregation Case (Brown v Board), Dies at 75

Linda Brown, Symbol of Landmark Desegregation Case, Dies at 75


Linda Brown in 1964 outside the Sumner School, which had denied her enrollment in 1950. Credit Associated Press

Linda Brown, whose father objected when she was not allowed to attend an all-white school in her neighborhood and who thus came to symbolize one of the most transformative court proceedings in American history, the school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education, died on Sunday in Topeka, Kan. She was 75. Her death was confirmed on Monday by a spokesman for the Peaceful Rest Funeral Chapel in Topeka, which is handling her funeral arrangements. He did not specify the cause.

It is Ms. Brown’s father, Oliver, whose name is attached to the famous case, although the suit that ended up in the United States Supreme Court actually represented a number of families in several states. In 1954, in a unanimous decision, the court ruled that segregated schools were inherently unequal. The decision upended decades’ worth of educational practice, in the South and elsewhere, and its ramifications are still being felt.

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Ms. Brown in 1979 with Benjamin L. Hooks, the executive director of the NAACP, on the 25th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.


Linda Brown in 2004 during a 50th-anniversary commemoration of Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Kan. Credit Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

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In its ruling, the Supreme Court threw out the prevailing “separate but equal” doctrine, which had allowed racial segregation in the schools as long as students of all races were afforded equal facilities. “To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race,” the court said, “generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” By the time of the ruling, Ms. Brown was in an integrated junior high school. She later became an educational consultant and public speaker.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/obituaries/linda-brown-symbol-of-landmark-desegregation-case-dies.html



Linda Brown, Who Was At Center Of Brown v. Board Of Education, Dies

March 26, 20187:42 PM ET



Linda Brown, left, attends ceremonies in 1979 observing the anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in her father's class-action lawsuit against the Board of Education in Topeka, Kan.
AP


Linda Brown, who as a schoolgirl was at the center of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that rejected racial segregation in American schools, died in Topeka, Kan., Sunday afternoon. She was 76. Her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, confirmed the death to The Topeka Capital-Journal. The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, involved several families, all trying to dismantle decades of federal education laws that condoned segregated schools for black and white students. But it began with Brown's father Oliver, who tried to enroll her at the Sumner School, an all-white elementary school in Topeka just a few blocks from the Browns' home.

The school board prohibited the child from enrolling and Brown, an assistant pastor at St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church, was angry that his daughter had to be shuttled miles away to go to school. He partnered with the NAACP and a dozen other plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education. By 1952 the U.S. Supreme Court had on its docket similar cases from Delaware, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and Virginia. They all challenged the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools.

Two years later the court unanimously ruled to strike down the doctrine of "separate but equal." The justices agreed that it denied 14th Amendment guarantees of equal protection under the law.
"I just couldn't understand," Brown told NPR 19 years after the milestone decision."We lived in a mixed neighborhood but when school time came I would have to take the school bus and go clear across town and the white children I played with would go to this other school," she said. "My parents tried to explain this to me but I was too young at that time to understand."

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Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in a statement remarked, "Linda Brown is one of that special band of heroic young people who, along with her family, courageously fought to end the ultimate symbol of white supremacy – racial segregation in public schools. She stands as an example of how ordinary schoolchildren took center stage in transforming this country."

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https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/26/597154953/linda-brown-who-was-at-center-of-brown-v-board-of-education-dies