March 26 (UPI) -- Linda Brown, the student at the center of the Brown v. Board of Education civil rights case that helped desegregate public schools in the United States, has died. She was 76.
"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," Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement. "She stands as an example of how ordinary schoolchildren took center stage in transforming this country."