Welcome to Words Matter with Katie Barlow.

And now Katie's final word.

Linda Brown was in the third grade when her father, Oliver, tried to enroll her in Sumner

Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas.

Oliver and his daughter, Linda, were denied admission to the school that day.

The year was 1950.

Sumner was in all white school, and Linda attended the school for black children across

town.

Separate but equal ruled the day in America at the time.

The idea that states could educate black and brown children in one school, and white

children in another, as long as the education was quote, equal.

But the moment Linda was turned away, sparked a series of events that toppled the idea

of separate but equal, and led her all the way to the steps of the Supreme Court of

the United States.

Linda's father was the name plaintiff in the seminal case, Brown v. Board of Education,

where the Supreme Court famously struck down separate but equal, and said that segregated

facilities deprived African-American children of a richer, fairer educational experience.

Even though that ruling changed the course of history, it took years to take effect

and some say the decision still hasn't fully reached every corner of our country.

But Linda became an icon, a symbol of hope, and dignity, and the opportunity for so many

Americans who were denied the full rights and privileges of citizenship.

And Linda used that status.

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