April 1948 Gladys Noel Bates, a teacher in the Jackson Public School system, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Jackson Public School Board for its refusal to pay black teachers and administrators salaries equal to those paid to whites with similar experience and educational background. May 17, 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ruled unanimously that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The court argued that segregation hurt both black and white students by instilling in each group false feelings of inferiority and superiority, respectively. The court added that the damage segregation did to blacks…