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Kansas Girl At Center of 1954 School Segregation Ruling Dies

Linda Brown poses outside Sumner Elementary School in Topkea, Kan. in 1953. 

Linda Brown poses outside Sumner Elementary School in Topkea, Kan. in 1953. 

Photographer: Carl Iwasaki/LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Topeka, Kan. (AP) -- Linda Brown, who as a Kansas girl was at the center of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down racial segregation in schools, has died at age 75.

Her father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll the family in an all-white school in Topeka, and the case was sparked when he and several black families were turned away. The NAACP's legal arm brought the lawsuit to challenge segregation in public schools, and Oliver Brown became lead plaintiff in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court that ended school segregation.