Social Studies Praxis Practice Test

The decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 was a landmark ruling that directly addressed and ultimately overturned the legal doctrine of "separate but equal" laws. This doctrine had been established in the precedent-setting case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which upheld state racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the separate facilities were deemed equal. In the Brown case, the Supreme Court unanimously held that segregation in public schools was inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling emphasized that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and violate the rights of African American children, leading to significant implications beyond education and reinforcing the Civil Rights Movement's momentum. This ruling effectively dismantled the legal foundation for racial segregation in public schools and challenged the broader applicability of segregation in other public spheres, marking a pivotal moment in the struggle for civil rights in the United States.