The separation of educational facilities based on race was deemed legal in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson and the supreme court saw the practice of “separate but equal” as constitutional in 1896 (Golash-Boza). This is a pivotal point in history where the segregation of races was upheld by the government of the United States and paved the way for future racism in education. The idea of separate but equal was challenged in 1954 with the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Brown won this case and established the foundation of combating racial segregation and inequality in education.
One policy with the intent to battle racism is affirmative action. Affirmative action creates expectations for schools, companies and other establishments to reach a certain quota of minorities to increase racial diversity (Golash-Boza). This policy has strived to decrease racism seen in many aspects of society. Although affirmative action has helped with decreasing segregation there are still major sociological components, which minority students encounter that increase the achievement gap between whites and