Linda Brown—whose name became known because of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that abolished school segregation—has died at age 76.
Because of segregation in her Topeka, Kansas, school district, Brown whad to travel by foot and by bus to a school far fron home. After her father and other Black families unsuccessfully tried to enroll their children in all-white schools, the NAACP (led by future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall) filed suit.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the segregation violated the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment.
Also, in 1979, Brown reopened another school-segregation case that led to the desegregation of Topeka Unified School District 501 in 1993.