TIH: Brown v. Board of Education 1954--One of America's long-delayed but finest moments.

On this date in 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a long-overdue landmark decision--Brown v. Bd. of Education.  It overruled Plessy v Ferguson and other cases, and held that racial segregation in public schools violated the equal protection clause on the 14th Amendment.  This was perhaps the Warren Court's greatest achievement.  It started the wheels turning slowly at first, but ultimately led to energizing the civil rights movement for all legally  "disfavored." groups  (prisoners, farm workers, Hispanics, women, gays, etc.).  Fulfilling the momentum started by the Union victory in the Civil War and the post Civil War amendments (13th, 14th and 15th), the decision was one of America's finest moments.  Having fought and won World War II against Nazi racial supremacists,  it was time for American to clean it's own house.  Although not all would agree, the Warren Court, more than any other, made individual rights a legal reality for Americans.