The Brown v. Board of Education case was a major factor in spurring the civil rights movement because this was the court case in which separate but equal was overturned and declared unconstitutional. The separate but equal precedent had been set back in 1896 with the Plessy vs. Ferguson case and had become the law of the land and allowed for the legal discrimination between blacks and whites. Brown had filed a lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education because his daughter Linda Brown was not allowed to attend the white school which was much better than the black school. During this case the 14th amendment was cited which states that states cannot deny anyone within its jurisdiction equal protection under the law. The court agreed that white schools held an undesirable advantage for their students and ruled separate but equal unconstitutional.
This is similar to affirmative action which was put into place by JFK to help desegregate the country.
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