You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Linda Brown, of Historic Brown v. Board of Education Case, Dies at 75

HeadlineMar 27, 2018

And Linda Brown—the woman at the center of the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that desegregated public education in the United States—has died at the age of 75 in Topeka, Kansas. In September 1950, her father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the third grade at their neighborhood’s all-white elementary school, as part of a civil rights effort to challenge public school segregation. This is Linda Brown, recalling that day, during a speech on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

Linda Brown: “It all started for me on a balmy day in the fall of 1950 in the quiet Kansas town of Topeka, when a mild-mannered black man took his plump 7-year-old daughter by the hand and walked briskly four blocks from their home to the all-white school and tried, without success, to enroll his child. The child of whom I speak was I, Linda Carol Brown, and my father, the late Reverend Oliver Leon Brown.”

When Linda Brown was refused admission, her family joined a class action lawsuit that became the historic case in which the Supreme Court threw out the doctrine of “separate but equal,” leading to the desegregation of public schools nationwide. This is Brown recalling the day the Supreme Court ruled.

Linda Brown: “At 12:52 p.m., the announcement came. The court’s decision on ending segregation was unanimous. My mother was overwhelmed. On returning from school, I learned of the decision, which at that time meant only to me that my sisters wouldn’t have to walk so far to school the next fall. That evening in our home was much rejoicing. I remember seeing tears of joy in the eyes of my father as he embraced us, repeating, 'Thanks be unto God.' That night, the family attended a rally given by the local NAACP and held at the Monroe public school.”

Despite the Supreme Court ruling, civil rights activists have spent decades fighting for full desegregation of public schools in the United States. The struggle continues to this day.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top