At the time the United States Supreme Court handed down the momentous Brown decision of May 17, 1954, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) was conducting the education of New Orleans children in a biracial system as required by state law. To ensure the separation of the races, each neighborhood area had two schools-one designated "white" and the other designated "Negro." ' While operating under the guise of the separate-but-equal principle, this dual system generated tangible inequalities which hampered the education of black children