In his arguments in Brown v. Board of Education, the lawyer for Linda Brown claimed that “separate but equal” public schools were

I believe the answer is separate but not truly equal.

Explanation:

During this era, public schools were not equal by any means. All black schools usually received less funding, had less teachers, had older textbooks/materials, and did not have nearly as nice of facilities (buildings) in comparison to all white schools. These were all reasons why black citizens wanted to desegregate schools, as they knew that this integration of black and white students would result in better opportunities for their children.

I hope I helped, please correct me if I'm wrong!