their case was named for one of the apartments, oliver brown, one of the parents, oliver brown, who was part of the kansas group. the closed gates were opened by the supreme court after many lawyers and thousands of people pushed against them. on may 17, 1954, the supreme court justices announced a decision in the case of brown v. board of education. the decision which said separate schools were not equal threw many states, city, towns, neighborhoods, principals, teachers, parents and students into confusion. battles were fought to honor, ignore or overturn the decision. many battles were won, some quietly, some not. the demand to integrate public schools grew into a nationwide civil rights movement to eliminate all racist law; to have the right to vote, the right to choose the neighborhood you wanted to live in, to sit in any vacant seat in a public place, marchs, protests, countermarches, counterprotests erupted almost everywhere. it was an extraordinary time when people of all races and all walks of life came together, when children had to be braver than their parents, when pastors,