Examining Brown v. Board, race and ‘equal protection’ through the eyes of the modern Supreme Court

Elizabeth Eckford, one of nine Black students whose integration into Little Rock's Central High School was ordered by a federal court following legal action by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, ignores the hostile screams and stares of white students on her first day of school, 6th September 1957. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

As the Supreme Court heard arguments in a racially charged Louisiana voting rights case last month, down on its ground floor a special exhibit was running a continual loop of commentary from Chief Justice John Roberts and others extolling the desegregation ruling of Brown v. Board of Education.

The exhibit takes advantage of the restored bench used by US district court Judge Ronald Davies, who ordered the enrollment of nine Black