Question

in 1954 the supreme court overturned laws requiring diffrent schools for white and african american students. what was the courts reasoning in this case

Answer 1

If you're talking about Brown v. Board of Education, they basically said that "separate but equal" had no place in education.

Separation/segregation limited opportunities for education to blacks and the court also argued that education was deemed vitally important for a person to develop themselves as individuals and succeed in society.

So, in their decision, they deemed that it violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment which generally stated that everyone should be afforded the same rights.

Answer 2

Here's a link to more info if you want to learn more of the details:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html