Brown v. Board of Education was a pivotal case that was argued before the United States Supreme Court challenging the legality of racial segregation in public schools. The case was filed on behalf of Linda Brown, a young African American girl who was denied admission to a white elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, solely because of her race. The plaintiffs contended that segregated schools were inherently unequal and thus violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first African American Supreme Court justice, served as the chief counsel for the NAACP in this case. The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ultimately ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public education was unconstitutional. This decision was grounded in the idea that segregated facilities are inherently unequal, effectively overturning the previous precedent set by Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which upheld the doctrine of 'separate but equal.' The Court emphasized that segregated schools are detrimental to the education and personal growth of African American children, and this ruling laid the foundation for future civil rights advancements and litigation against segregation in other areas of public life.