Linda Brown Dies

Linda Brown, who as a little girl was at the center of the Brown v Linda Brown, who as a little girl was at the center of the Brown v. Board of Education case that ended segregation in American schools, has died, a funeral home spokesman said. Brown, 75, died Sunday afternoon in Topeka, Kansas. Brown was 9 years old in 1951 when her father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her at Sumner Elementary School, then an all-white school near her Topeka home. When the school blocked her enrollment her father sued the Topeka Board of Education. Four similar cases were combined with Brown's complaint and presented to the Supreme Court as Oliver L. Brown et al v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al. The court ruled in May 1954 that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," a violation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which states that no citizen can be denied equal protection under the law. The ruling overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the separate but equal doctrine that formed the legal basis for Jim Crow laws.

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