--- title: Linda Brown and the Ripple Effect of Brown v. Board of Ed description: As the world remembers the person at the center of the landmark case, historian Mary Frances Berry explains the hidden impacts of the ruling canonical: https://time.com/5217938/linda-brown-case-impacts/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-28T16:46:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:57:57.911Z article:section: History og:title: Linda Brown's Legacy and the Hidden Ripple Effect of 'Brown v. Board of Education' og:description: "It was absolutely crucial not just in schools but for the whole fabric of American life" og:url: https://time.com/5217938/linda-brown-case-impacts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdca02b7cbf3a6f79/69892c31096a9429026a1f52/linda-brown.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Linda Brown Outside Sumner Elementary og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Linda Brown's Legacy and the Hidden Ripple Effect of 'Brown v. Board of Education' twitter:description: "It was absolutely crucial not just in schools but for the whole fabric of American life" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdca02b7cbf3a6f79/69892c31096a9429026a1f52/linda-brown.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Linda Brown's Legacy and the Hidden Ripple Effect of _Brown v. Board of Education_ > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=429fd9ce-3ba5-44fe-a333-dd8145b7a789&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=429fd9ce-3ba5-44fe-a333-dd8145b7a789&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1)  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 28, 2018 4:46 PM UTC  Portrait of Linda Brown at 9, outside Sumner Elementary School, Topkea, Kans., 1953. Portrait of Linda Brown at 9, outside Sumner Elementary School, Topkea, Kans., 1953. Carl Iwasaki—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 28, 2018 4:46 PM UTC Linda Brown, who [died](http://time.com/5216382/linda-brown-v-board-of-education-dead-dies/) this week at 75 after a lifetime as a sometimes-[reluctant](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/18/education/the-cases-the-reluctant-icons.html) national icon associated with the landmark desegregation case _Brown v. Board of Education_, became a public figure because of where she went to school. She was forced as a child to travel two miles across Topeka, Kans., to attend an all-black elementary school rather than going to the white school that was mere blocks from her home. It was that journey, and the obvious discrimination behind it, that drove her father to launch the lawsuit that culminated in the 1954 Supreme Court [ruling](http://time.com/vault/issue/1954-05-24/page/23/) that separate was inherently equal. Historian and activist [Mary Frances Berry,](http://time.com/5188876/resist-history-mary-frances-berry/) former head of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, had something in common with Brown. Berry made a similar trek across her home city of Nashville in the early 1950s, peering in the windows of the all-white school as she passed and marveling at how nice it looked inside. And she remembers seeing the newspaper come out with a headline announcing the decision in _Brown_. “I said to my teacher, ‘Does that mean all the children will go to school together next year?’” she recalls. “She said to me, ‘Not so fast, Mary Frances, not so fast.’ I guess she was right.” But, as the world remembers Linda Brown’s legacy, Berry points out that the “not so fast” narrative that surrounds the case is only part of the story. It’s true that the court’s decision that the ruling should be implemented “with all deliberate speed” did not in fact translate to quick or painless desegregation in schools or elsewhere; in fact, in more recent years, [much of the progress](http://time.com/3258196/integration-little-rock/) that was made in American schools in the wake of _Brown_ was [erased](https://www.vox.com/2018/3/5/17080218/school-segregation-getting-worse-data). As the integration pioneer James Meredith, who broke the racial barrier at the University of Mississippi, [put it to TIME](http://time.com/5216790/linda-brown-dead-james-meredith/) this week, the decision “did not deliver what it promised.” “_Brown_ was important not because it desegregated schools, because the schools today are segregated. We call it ‘racially isolated’; that’s a euphemism. Most black kids and brown kids go to schools where [most of the kids](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-tatum-school-segregation-20170912-story.html) are black and brown,” Berry says. “If we think we have to test _Brown_’s importance by whether it desegregated the schools permanently, the answer would be no.” But, Berry argues, the overall impact of the case is much broader than it would appear to be if one were looking at school integration data only. ### After ‘Brown v. Board of Education’: Portraits of Integration, Virginia, 1959  Seventeen of the African-American students who were ordered admitted to white schools in Norfolk, Va., pose for a photo at a church where they had been getting private schooling, 1959\. Upper row: Andrew Heidelberg, Louis Cousins, Patricia Godbolt, Carol Wellington, Reginald Young, Freddy Gonsouland, Edward Jordan, Olivia Driver; lower row: Betty Jean Reed, Johnnie Rouse, Delores Johnson, LaVera Forbes, James Turner Jr., Lolita Portis, Patricia Turner, Claudia Wellington, Geraldine Talley. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Betty Jean Reed, the only black student at Granby High School in Norfolk, Va., 1959 Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Betty Jean Reed, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Caption to similar photo: "Alone in line, Betty Jean Reed tensely waits for lunch at Granby High cafeteria as other students ignore her." Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Betty Jean Reed, Granby High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Betty Jean Reed on the phone with a friend during her first week as the only African-American student at Granby High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Granby High student Betty Jean Reed studies at home, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Granby High School student Betty Jean Reed and her mother, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Six of the "Norfolk 17" -- students who integrated Virginia schools in 1959: Lower row: LaVera Forbes, Alveraze "Freddy" Gonsouland, Johnnie Rouse; upper row: Lolita Portis, James Turner Jr., Claudia Wellington. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Crush of journalists covering desegregation of Norfolk schools, 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Desegregation of Norfolk, Va., public school, 1959\. Students: Delores Johnson, Patricia Godbolt. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Desegregation of Norfolk, Va., public school, 1959\. Students: Olivia Driver, Freddy Gonsouland. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Three of the "Norfolk 17" -- students who integrated Virginia schools in 1959: (l-r) Delores Johnson, Reginald Young, Carol Wellington. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Patricia Godbolt eats lunch alone, Norview High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Journalists covering desegregation of Norfolk schools, 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Desegregation of Norfolk, Va., public school, 1959\. Students: Freddy Gonsouland, Patricia Godbolt. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Six of the "Norfolk 17" -- students who integrated Virginia schools in 1959: Lower row: Patricia Godbolt, Andrew Heidelberg, Olivia Driver; upper row: Geraldine Talley, Edward Jordan, Patricia Turner. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, the only black student to attend Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, the only black student to attend Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Louis Cousins orders lunch in cafeteria at newly desegregated Maury high school, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. White student stops to speak with Louis Cousins at newly desegregated Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, the only black student to attend Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Alveraze "Freddy" Gonsouland (hand on cheek) at home with his half-brother and mother, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Practicing at home, integrated pupils Alveraze Gonsouland and half-brother toss ball." Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![Caption from LIFE. "Doing homework, \[Freddy\] Gonsouland reads Spanish lesson. 'I'm studying like never before,' he says.'"](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd16dc874e19ea1/69884bcdcd6848c45109f6fd/140512-integrated-schools-26.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. "Doing homework, \[Freddy\] Gonsouland reads Spanish lesson. 'I'm studying like never before,' he says.'" Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images For one thing, even as segregation remains the practical truth in many parts of the country, a huge amount of the stigma attached to the idea of separate education—the [feeling of inequality](http://www.naacpldf.org/brown-at-60-the-doll-test) that was inherently attached to the idea that school segregation was necessary—was lifted by the case. Secondly, it was only about a year after the _Brown_ ruling that Rosa Parks [made her stand](http://time.com/3603948/jesse-jackson-rosa-parks/) and thus precipitated the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott, which in turn led to the 1956 Supreme Court case [_Gayle v. Browder_](https://www.oyez.org/cases/1956/342). In that case, as Berry points out, the justices affirmed a lower court decision that segregated transportation was unconstitutional, based in part on the precedent that had been set by _Brown_. The _Brown_ decision also served as a legal underpinning for civil rights laws that would be passed in the decade that followed. Thirdly, the reaction to the case—the harsh stand many took against integration, [even in the face of federal enforcement](http://time.com/3874341/little-rock-nine-1957-photos/)—galvanized a movement to demand equality. “The hostility to implementing _Brown_ led many of us, young people like me and others, to be willing to engage in nonviolent direct action,” Berry says. “I think it was absolutely crucial not just in schools but for the whole fabric of American life.” That massive impact is why it’s all the more notable that the promise of _Brown_ has not truly been fulfilled in American schools, even though data show that—on top of the moral imperative for equality—integration leads to [better educational outcomes](https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/03/16/515788673/try-this-one-trick-to-improve-student-outcomes). Among the myriad ripples caused by Linda Brown’s childhood struggle, Berry says, education is ironically “the great missing piece.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5217938/linda-brown-case-impacts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5217938/linda-brown-case-impacts/"},"headline":"Linda Brown's Legacy and the Hidden Ripple Effect of Brown v. 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