This exhibits marks the 50^th anniversary of the US Supreme Court Brown v Board decision to desegregate public schools and with this ruling the overturning of the Separate but Equal legacy of Plessy v Ferguson. The Court determined, “Segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment -- even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors of white and Negro schools may be equal.”  They further commented, “In approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868, when the Amendment was adopted, or even to 1896, when Plessy v. Ferguson was written. We must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation. Only in this way can it be determined if segregation in public schools deprives these plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws.”

Exhibit developed by Carmelita Pickett, Valerie Coleman, and Rebecca Hankins