It seems hard to believe now, but...

To get to the bus to get a ride across Topeka, Kansas, to the all-black school, Linda Brown had to walk through railroad yards and across a busy avenue.

"I remember the walk as being very long at that time," she said in 1985. "And then when wintertime came, it was a very cold walk. I remember that. I remember walking, tears freezing up on my face, because I began to cry because it was so cold, and many times I had to turn around and run back home."

She was 9 years old, it was 1951, and Linda and her father, Oliver Brown had had enough. Why couldn't she attend the all-white school that was much closer to home?

Pick one:  a) she was not white  b) she was African-American c) it was 1951 and the laws were stupid  d) her father took the case along with four others to the US Supreme Court, and overturned the American system of segregated "separate but equal" schools  e) all of the above.

Put down your pencils, if you chose "e."  Mr Brown, like any father of any era anywhere, wanted the best for his children, and reasoned that his tax money was just as green as that of the white folks, so why couldn't Linda go to Sumner Elementary School?

Now Linda Brown has passed away, having spent all her valuable life in Topeka. She played piano at her church and gave lessons to children there, after she and her father gave lessons to the entire world.

Baltimore's own Thurgood Marshall served as counsel for the plaintiffs and the NAACP before the Supreme Court, which ruled in May 1954 that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," and as such, violated the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which is supposed to provide for all citizens equal protection under the law.

"Linda Brown is one of that special band of heroic young people who, along with her family, courageously fought to end the ultimate symbol of white supremacy -- racial segregation in public schools. She stands as an example of how ordinary schoolchildren took center stage in transforming this country," said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel at NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

"It was not easy for her or her family, but her sacrifice broke barriers and changed the meaning of equality in this country."

Before the Browns and their cohorts won their case, Plessy v. Ferguson  was the law that allowed the "separate but equal" doctrine.  That's what was the basis of that they called Jim Crow laws - that whole world of separate washrooms, water fountains, schools, buses...all that nonsense.  Even though the Court ruling ordered schools to desegrate "with all deliberate speed," but with not firm timetable for meeting that standards, the predictable foot-dragging kept schools out of compliance for years - for example, until 1970 in Mississippi. 

Here's how Jeff Colyer, the governor of Kansas, summed up the Brown family's contribution to American history.

"Sixty-four years ago a young girl from Topeka brought a case that ended segregation in public schools in America. Linda Brown's life reminds us that sometimes the most unlikely people can have an incredible impact and that by serving our community we can truly change the world."

I think about the courage and forbearance it took for Linda Brown and her father to face what must have been great fears, buttressed by faith in God and goodness, and make a difference for all the world.