User:BigPineSteele/sandbox

Alice Piper was a 15 year old Paiute girl who in 1923 was denied entry into Big Pine School district in Big Pine California. At that time California state law prohibited Native American Children from attending public school if a separate school for natives was located within three miles of a public school. Alice Piper sued the school district for her right to attend, claiming that it violated her 14th Amendment rights. The California Supreme Court in the case Piper v Big Pine (1924) found that it was unconstitutional to prohibit her from attending public school. Thus, Alice Piper became the first Native American student at Big Pine High School. Alice Piper's case later became an important precedent in Brown v Board of Education, Topeka.