Brown v. Board of Education overturned the doctrine of 'separate but equal' established by which case?

• A. Marbury v. Madison (1803).
• B. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857).
• C. Roe v. Wade (1973).
• D. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Answer: (D)

The key idea here is that the idea of “separate but equal” came from a previous ruling, and Brown v. Board of Education rejects that premise in the context of public schools. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) upheld racial segregation by arguing that as long as facilities were “equal,” separation was constitutional. That ruling provided legal cover for Jim Crow laws and widespread segregation for decades.

Brown v. Board of Education challenged that logic by arguing that in education, separate facilities are inherently unequal and therefore violate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. The decision declared that state-imposed school segregation could not be kept, even if facilities were supposedly equal, because separate educational environments suggested inequality and inferior status for Black students. This marked a fundamental shift in how courts assessed segregation and equity in public schooling.

Other cases mentioned don’t address this doctrine: one dealt with the powers of the Supreme Court itself, another with citizenship and slavery-era rights, and another with abortion. The specific link Brown overturns is the Plessy doctrine of “separate but equal.”