Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that state laws establishing separate but equal educational institutions for blacks and whites violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The primary question Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court’s opinion is “the constitutionality of segregation in public education. We have now announced that such segregation is a denial of the equal protection of the laws.” In an opinion piece for the Tennessean, Frank Daniels III examines the societal and legal impact this groundbreaking ruling had on the American educational system.