An anniversary: Brown v. Board of Education - 55 years ago today

Fifty-five years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled for Brown in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), effectively reversing the Court's "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), and finding that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Brown was the culmination of a legal strategy designed by Charles Hamilton Houston. This strategy was based on dismantling Plessy v. Ferguson brick by brick in a series of cases demonstrating that "separate" was inherently "unequal".

The immediate impact of Brown v Board of Education was reduced by "Brown II":

In 1955, the Supreme Court considered arguments by the schools requesting relief concerning the task of desegregation. In their decision which became known as "Brown II" the court delegated the task of carrying out school desegregation to district courts with orders that desegregation occur "with all deliberate speed"...
[Wikipedia, Brown v. Board of Education]

Not surprisingly, the affected school boards across the country interpreted "with all deliberate speed" to mean "slow as molasses".