<Table> <Tr> <Th colspan="2"> Brown v. Board of Education </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td colspan="2"> Supreme Court of the United States </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th colspan="2"> Argued December 9 , 1952 Reargued December 8 , 1953 Decided May 17 , 1954 </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Full case name </Th> <Td> Oliver Brown , et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka , et al . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Citations </Th> <Td> 347 U.S. 483 ( more ) 74 S. Ct. 686 ; 98 L. Ed . 873 ; 1954 U.S. LEXIS 2094 ; 53 Ohio Op. 326 ; 38 A.L.R. 2d 1180 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Prior history </Th> <Td> Judgment for defendants , 98 F. Supp. 797 ( D. Kan . 1951 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Subsequent history </Th> <Td> Judgment on relief , 349 U.S. 294 ( 1955 ) ( Brown II ) ; on remand , 139 F. Supp. 468 ( D. Kan . 1955 ) ; motion to intervene granted , 84 F.R.D. 383 ( D. Kan . 1979 ) ; judgment for defendants , 671 F. Supp. 1290 ( D. Kan . 1987 ) ; reversed , 892 F. 2d 851 ( 10th Cir. 1989 ) ; vacated , 503 U.S. 978 ( 1992 ) ( Brown III ) ; judgment reinstated , 978 F. 2d 585 ( 10th Cir. 1992 ) ; judgment for defendants , 56 F. Supp . 2d 1212 ( D. Kan . 1999 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th colspan="2"> Holding </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td colspan="2"> Segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment , because separate facilities are inherently unequal . District Court of Kansas reversed . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th colspan="2"> Court membership </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td colspan="2"> <Dl> <Dt> Chief Justice </Dt> <Dd> Earl Warren </Dd> <Dt> Associate Justices </Dt> <Dd> Hugo Black Stanley F. Reed Felix Frankfurter William O. Douglas Robert H. Jackson Harold H. Burton Tom C. Clark Sherman Minton </Dd> </Dl> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th colspan="2"> Case opinions </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Majority </Th> <Td> Warren , joined by unanimous </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th colspan="2"> Laws applied </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td colspan="2"> U.S. Const . amend . XIV </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td colspan="2"> This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td colspan="2"> Plessy v. Ferguson ( 1896 ) Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education ( 1899 ) Berea College v. Kentucky ( 1908 ) </Td> </Tr> </Table>
who was the defendant in the landmark case that ended segregation in the public schools
Board of Education of Topeka , et al .