Brown v. Board of Education and the Role of the Supreme Court

The Brown v. Board of Education decision ended the separate but equal clause, and the Supreme Court played a key role in this societal shift. In addition, NAACP leaders Thurgood Marshall and Oliver Hill helped alter the lives of Americans through desegregation. The state of Virginia, like much of the nation, viewed these changes negatively and sentiments and instituted ideas like Massive Resistance and opening private schools as alternatives to integrating public ones. Today, public schools throughout the country are desegregated.