In 1954, the Supreme Court decided to combine several different cases regarding segregation in schools and make a general ruling. One of the cases involved Linda Brown, an African American girl who was dined admission to a school in Topeka, Kansas and was told to attend an all-black school across town. In this case, the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall played a crucial part. Thurgood Marshall began to focus his talents as an attorney towards ending segregation in public schools. He was the NAACP's chief counsel and director of its Legal Defense and Educational Fund. With his and the NAACP's help, the parents of Linda Brown were able to sue the Topeka school board. Then on May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
The southern, white, response however, was less than perfect. The ruling angered many white Southerners, and some went as far as to pressure their local governments and school boards into defying the Supreme Court.