The Hechinger Report takes a look at the decision that was intended to end segregation in public schools in an exploration of what has, and hasn’t, changed since school segregation was declared illegal.
7 realities for Black students in America, 70 years after Brown
The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education found that separating students by race was unconstitutional, but segregation’s legacy remains
School Segregation: A visual timeline
Key moments in the 70 years since the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling.
PROOF POINTS: Tracing Black-white achievement gaps since the Brown decision
Academic progress of Black students has followed a bumpy path since the 1970s
PROOF POINTS: 5 takeaways about segregation 70 years after the Brown decision
Despite decades of progress, there are some worrying signs
Black student Linda Brown, 9, walks past Sumner Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, in 1953. When her enrollment in the all-white school was blocked, her family initiated the landmark civil rights lawsuit, Brown v. Board of Education, that led to the beginning of desegregation of American public schools. Credit: Carl Iwasaki/Getty Images 
Students chat while waiting for a history lesson to begin at Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on Sept. 20, 1955. Previously an all-white institution, the school was desegregated by order of the Atomic Energy Commission, which administered the affairs of the community. Credit: Underwood Archives/Getty Images 
More than 15,000 people – white and Black – march down Madison Drive to the Washington Monument, as part of an NAACP rally calling for the integration of schools, in Washington, D.C.. Credit: Getty Images 
Vivian Malone and James Hood, two Black students, register at the University of Alabama on June 12, 1963, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., after a federal court barred state government interference with their enrollment. Despite this order, Gov. George Wallace appointed himself the temporary university registrar and stood in the doorway of the administration building to prevent the students from registering. In response, President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard. Some 100 guardsmen escorted the students to campus. The guards’ commander, Gen. Henry Graham, ordered Wallace to “step aside.” Credit: OFF/AFP via Getty Images 
Police escort school buses on Sept. 16, 1974, from the Gavin School in South Boston on the third day of court-ordered busing to integrate Boston’s public schools.
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Segregation incarnated in brick and mortar
Where charter schools are built shows our commitment to integration
Any educational reform that ignores segregation is doomed to failure
A new report finds that such reforms only placate white people, don’t bring equity