Brown v. Council declared segregation in schools unconstitutional, thus promoting integration. Many saw it as a turning point, the beginning of a social revolution. However, it is believed that, while positive, the ruling did not do enough to force real change. It is also possible to argue that this increased white opposition, effectively hindering the cause of civil rights. Overall, however, the positive aspects outweighed the negative ones, especially the psychological effect and the legal support from the court. Brown's prominence immediately after the court's ruling was called a "Supreme Court bombshell,"1 as illustrated in an image published five days later in a Richmond newspaper. The San Francisco Chronicle believed that Brown would have an immediate and major "anti-segregation impact," calling him "a social revolution"2. Judge Constance Motley called it "the catalyst for all the demonstrations"3 that followed. The last of these sources came from an NAACP lawyer, the other two from pro-civil rights publications. It is not surprising, therefore, that these people wanted to facilitate the success of the sentence, perhaps leading them to exaggerate its significance. By exaggerating how much they thought would change with the court's decision, they could further their hopes. The fact remains, however, that the ruling overturned the precedent established by Plessy v. Ferguson sixty years earlier. The Supreme Court objected to that ruling's central idea, "separate but equal," saying there was "no place" in the U.S. Constitution and that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Willoughby and Paterson state that Brown succeeded in "ending the stranglehold of the earlier Plessy". ...... middle of paper ...... s, New York, May 22, 1954. 9 Denver Post, Colorado, May 18, 1954. 10 Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky, May 18, 1954. 11 Paterson and Willoughby , Civil Rights in the United States, p. 119. 12 Mark Rathbone, The United States Supreme Court and Civil Rights, History Today. 13 Excerpt from President Eisenhower's letter to a personal friend, 1957 14 James T. Patterson, The Troubled Legacy of Brown v. Board, p. 7. 15 Statement of the Conference of Negro Educational Leaders, October 1954 16 Daily News, Starkville, Mississippi, May 18, 1954. 17 Cavalier Daily, Charlottesville, Virginia, May 18, 1954. 18 Excerpt from a letter from a personal friend of President Eisenhower, 1957 19 Tom P. Brady, Black Monday, p.7. 20 James T. Patterson, The Troubled Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, 2004, p. 7. 21 James T. Patterson, The Troubled Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, 2004, p.. 8.