Cooper v. Aaron (1958)

Cooper v. Aaron (1958) was the Supreme Court ruling to put into effect the decisions in Brown v. Board of Education—the landmark cases that held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore denied black students the equal protection rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The two decisions in 1954 and 1955, referred to as Brown I and Brown II, respectively, ordered the states to desegregate the schools. However, Brown I did not specify guidelines on how to proceed, and Brown II included a mandate only to begin desegregation “with all deliberate speed.” In Arkansas, the Little Rock School Board presented a six-year plan to integrate its schools. In May 1955, the board indicated it would start integration in the fall of 1957, with a small number of black students attending Central High School. In the fall of 1960, the board stated that desegregation of junior high schools would begin. A date for integration of the state's elementary schools was not even incorporated in the scheme.