Linda Brown, who helped end US school segregation, dies at 75

Linda Brown, who was at the centre of the landmark 1950s court battle leading to the desegregation of US public schools, has died at age 75.

The US Supreme Court ruling on the Brown vs Board of Education case in 1954 was a key moment in the movement to end widespread discriminatory practices against black people in the United States -- but discrimination, racism and racial tensions still plague the country more than 60 years later.

"Linda Brown Thompson 75, of Topeka (Kansas), passed away March 25, 2018 at Lexington Park Nursing & Post Acute Centre," according to an obituary provided by her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson.

She is survived by a son and a daughter as well as other relatives, it said.

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 of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People's Legal Defence and Educational Fund, said in a statement.

"She stands as an example of how ordinary schoolchildren took center stage in transforming this country," she said.

"It was not easy for her or her family, but her sacrifice broke barriers and changed the meaning of equality in this country."