The historic Brown v. Board of Education decision took place in 1954. This landmark Supreme Court ruling declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, effectively overturning the precedent set by Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine. The case was a consolidation of several lawsuits challenging segregation in various schools across the United States, spearheaded by the NAACP. The Court's unanimous decision, delivered by Chief Justice Earl Warren, was a significant step forward in the Civil Rights Movement, igniting momentum for further challenges to racial discrimination and inequality in various aspects of American life.