Linda Brown, child at the center of the landmark Brown v. Board Education case, dies at 76. Linda Brown's enrollment at the all-white Sumner Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, was blocked in 1951, causing her family to challenge school segregation laws. In the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down state laws that allowed “separate but equal” public schools, ending legal segregation across the U.S. Ref. USAToday.