In what year did the Supreme Court issue Brown v. Board of Education, ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional?

• A. 1950
• B. 1952
• C. 1956
• D. 1954

Answer: (D)

This question tests when the Supreme Court declared that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling was issued in 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education. In that decision, the Court held that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment because separate facilities are inherently unequal. This overturned the long-standing Plessy v. Ferguson idea of “separate but equal” that had been used to justify segregated schooling.

The decision was delivered on May 17, 1954, and it represented a major turning point, signaling that state laws establishing separate schools for Black and white students could not stand under the Constitution. It sparked a nationwide push toward desegregation, even though actual integration happened gradually, with further rulings and actions in the years that followed, including Brown II in 1955 urging desegregation with all deliberate speed.