Families in Topeka, Kansas, tried to enroll their children in the schools closest to them, which were schools designated for white students. Each child was refused admission and directed to schools for Black children, which were much further from where they lived. The trial court agreed that educational segregation had a negative effect on Black children, and it applied the standard of Plessy v. Ferguson in finding that the white and Black schools offered sufficiently equal quality of teachers, curricula, facilities, and transportation. The Supreme Court reversed this decision based on the 14th Amendment ruling that Plessy’s “separate but equal” principle is inherently unequal.