In his lawsuit, Brown claimed <em><u>that</u></em><em><u> </u></em><em><u>schools </u></em><em><u>for </u></em><em><u>Black </u></em><em><u>children </u></em><em><u>were </u></em><em><u>not </u></em><em><u>equal </u></em><em><u>to </u></em><em><u>the </u></em><em><u>white</u></em><em><u> </u></em><em><u>schools </u></em> , and that segregation violated the so-called “equal protection clause” of the 14th Amendment, which holds that no state can “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws