ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. By ruling that the word "equal" applied not only to tangible factors but also to intangible qualities, the US Supreme Court made it more difficult for states to maintain and justify separate but equal, or "dual," school systems. The Court's unanimous and resounding attack on racial segregation demonstrated to those without hope that after hundreds of years of segregation, change was possible. The racial discrimination is a deprivation of liberty under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment as well as the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth. The struggle for racial equality began long before the Warren Court's celebrated decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
