The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v<span>. </span>Board of Education<span> marked a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States. On May 17, 1954, the Court stripped away constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made equal opportunity in </span>education<span> the law of the land.</span>Brown v<span>. </span>Board of Education (1954), now acknowledged as one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.