Fourteenth Amendment

Brown's lawyers argued that segregated schooling damaged Black children's education and self-esteem. They connected this to the Fourteenth Amendment, which required states to provide equal protection of the laws.

Thurgood Marshall and fellow NAACP lawyers argued that separate school systems violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed equal protection of the laws. They also presented evidence that segregation damaged black children's self-esteem by making them feel inferior.