Which court decision overturned Plessy v Ferguson by ruling that segregated public schools are unconstitutional?

• A. Plessy v Ferguson
• B. Brown v Board of Education
• C. Civil Rights Act
• D. Title IX

Answer: (B)

The key idea is how the Supreme Court treated segregation in education. Plessy v. Ferguson established the idea of “separate but equal,” allowing states to segregate facilities as long as they were supposedly equal. Brown v. Board of Education rejected that logic for public schools, holding that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. This directly reversed the legacy of Plessy in the realm of schooling. The Civil Rights Act bans discrimination in many areas but doesn’t specifically overturn that school-era doctrine on constitutional grounds, and Title IX addresses sex-based discrimination rather than racial segregation in education.