In the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling, the United States Supreme Court declares state-sponsored segregation unconstitutional. The Brown decision overturns Plessy v. Ferguson, a 1896 Supreme Court case that permitted "separate but equal" facilities in the United States. While overriding the Supreme Court precedent, Chief Justice Earl Warren declared that segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment and stated that separate schools and facilities could never be equal.
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