"Most public facilities in Utah, at the time of the decision, were segregated," Peterson said. "Hotels, restaurants would not allow African Americans, and in some cases other minorities, to stay there or eat there."

Peterson said the segregation included all-white neighborhoods, theaters and even Lagoon amusement park, at one time.

According to the NAACP, there was only one black attorney and one black physician practicing in the entire state in 1954, Peterson said.

There's anecdotal evidence of much of the same discrimination against Hispanics, said Armando Solorzano, associate professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah.

Dovie Goodwin, 96, one of the first black teachers hired in the state, remembers being turned away from places such as the Walgreens lunch counter because of her skin color. Blacks were relegated to the balconies of movie theaters, she said.

Once, she recalled a theater sign reading "balcony closed." Goodwin had arrived late, and the theater was already dark, so she just went in and sat down. An employee told her "you people have to sit upstairs." "I just got up and left," she sighed.

Peterson said the state's predominant faith — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — influenced the attitude toward blacks. The church did not allow blacks to hold the priesthood until 1978.

Even black entertainers, such as opera singer Marian Anderson, faced discrimination in the Beehive State. Peterson said when Anderson performed in Salt Lake City in January 1954, she stayed at the Hotel Utah but had to use the freight elevator and receive her meals in her room.

Peterson said Brown v. Board did not have the same direct impact on equality of education in Utah as it did elsewhere. He said many in Utah thought the decision was irrelevant because schools weren't segregated, but they were wrong.

"I think the attitude toward blacks in public accommodations and fairness, I think that set the tone for people in the state," he said.

Change came gradually in Utah, Peterson said. It wasn't until after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 that the state overturned a law prohibiting interracial marriage.

Peterson said evidence of the shifting attitude toward race could be seen a year after Brown v. Board, when the state's first black teacher was hired in the Ogden School District.

Breaking the color barrier

However, it remained difficult for blacks to break the color barrier and become teachers — a fact Goodwin learned first-hand when she applied to teach at the now closed Pingree Elementary in 1958.