Brown v Board of Education
"Brown v. Board of Education" was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in 1954 that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. This decision effectively overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, marking a significant victory in the civil rights movement and leading to the desegregation of schools across the United States.
7 Key excerpts on "Brown v Board of Education"
eBook - ePub- James Daley, James Daley(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Dover Publications(Publisher)
...Brown v. Board of Education 1954, 1955 More than fifty years after Plessy v. Ferguson legitimized the “separate but equal” doctrine of segregation, separate schools for blacks and whites were the norm in much of the country, with seventeen states requiring educational segregation, and only sixteen states prohibiting the practice. Linda Brown was a third grader in Topeka, Kansas, who had to walk six blocks to catch a bus to her segregated black school over a mile away, while there was a white school only six blocks from her home. When Linda’s father, Oliver Brown, attempted to enroll her at the more convenient white school, he was refused and directed back to the segregated black school. Thus, with the backing of the NAACP and along with eleven other plaintiffs, Brown filed a class action suit in the U.S. District Court against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. When that case failed, due to the judges” citation of the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision, Brown et al. appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In taking up Brown v. Board of Ed., the Supreme Court decided to combine it with four other NAACP-sponsored cases on similar issues, so as to hear and decide on all five of them together. These other cases were: Briggs v. Elliott, Davis et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, et al., Gebhart et al. v. Belton et al., and Bolling v. Sharp. The Court’s decision was delivered in two parts: the first, delivered on May 17, 1954, refuted the “separate but equal” doctrine in education, stating that segregation was inherently unequal and thus a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment; the second part, delivered on April 11, 1955, directed the lower courts to see to it that schools be desegregated “with all deliberate speed.” This case was the first of many that, over the next twenty years, eradicated nearly all legally sanctioned discrimination against blacks in the United States. U.S. SUPREME COURT BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION, 347 U.S...
eBook - ePubA Little Child Shall Lead Them
A Documentary Account of the Struggle for School Desegregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia
- Brian J. Daugherity, Brian Grogan(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- University of Virginia Press(Publisher)
...Supreme Court, which was also asked to hear the appeals of the cases from South Carolina, Kansas, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court consolidated the five cases under the name of the Kansas case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and arguments before the Court began in December 1952. In a unanimous decision handed down on May 17, 1954, the Court declared that segregation in public education was unconstitutional. Opposition to the Brown decision was immediate, emerging both from segregationist principles and from the belief of white southerners that the decision infringed on state sovereignty and their personal liberties. Paramount among these was the ability to educate their children as they pleased, without interference from the federal government. Segregationists argued that the United States was a compact among sovereign states, and the southern states had a duty to resist encroachments on their sovereign powers. As civil rights scholar Christopher Bonastia has noted, those who resisted often viewed themselves as “patriotic constitutionalists” as opposed to “diehard segregationists.” As contemporary scholarship has shown, the language of individual liberties, the sovereign rights of states, and opposition to the federal government would become fundamental political doctrine of the modern conservative movement. 1 NOTE 1. Bonastia, Southern Stalemate, 7–8. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas U.S. Supreme Court May 17, 1954 On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued its historic decision. The unanimous ruling, written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, stated that “in the field of public education ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” Segregation in public education was declared unconstitutional, overturning school segregation in seventeen southern and border states, and ending optional segregation policies in four others. Mr...
- Bruce B. Frey(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Patricia D. López Patricia D. López López, Patricia D. Brown v. Board of Education Brown v. board of education 222 226 Brown v. Board of Education This entry provides a brief historical overview of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and elaborates on how the process of achieving equal access to educational opportunities for all public school students has taken shape. It also discusses the role the Brown decision has played in educational assessment, research, and practice, with a focus on the sociopolitical aspects of these practices. The 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education set forth an historical shift in the U.S. public educational system’s responsibility to provide educational opportunities for all students, regardless of race. The case was filed on behalf of Oliver Brown, a parent of a Black child who was denied access to a segregated White school in Topeka, Kansas. Segregation can be understood as a practice that divides and orders individuals along racial lines. Although the case falls under one single name, there were actually two decisions—namely, Brown I (1954) and Brown II (1955)—both of which were unanimous. Brown I put an end to the “separate but equal” doctrine, arguing that public schools that separate students into different facilities based on race are not equal nor can they be made equal, thereby marking them unconstitutional. The court unanimously held that the racial segregation of children and youth in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This clause states that “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Furthermore, the court asserted that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees all children and youth access to an equal education, regardless of race...
eBook - ePubEducation and Sociology
An Encyclopedia
- David Levinson, Peter Cookson, Alan Sadovnik, David Levinson, Peter Cookson, Alan Sadovnik(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Such a view was then unusual in civil rights circles, but it was an eerie harbinger of sentiments and situations that would be much more prevalent several decades later. Several factors other than the brilliant legal campaign against Plessy led to the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Some were idiosyncratic; President Eisenhower happened to appoint as Chief Justice the Republican Californian politician Earl Warren, whom he reasonably but mistakenly expected to be a centrist conservative. Other factors were broadly structural. Black southern farm workers and their families were moving to cities and to the north, and beginning to demand education, civil rights, decent jobs, and political power. Black soldiers were returning from World War II, full of pride at their achievements, inspired by the relative freedom they had enjoyed abroad, and angry at restrictions that remained at home. Whites were chastened by the Nazis’ example of what racism could produce. Politicians were starting to fight the Cold War, and found it difficult to claim with a straight face that the United States, in contrast with the Soviet Union, was the land of freedom and equality for all. The revelation of their hypocrisy was hastened by accusations from African leaders whom American diplomats were trying to woo. Most generally, the south was emerging from its post–Civil War poverty, isolation, and intransigence, and both southerners and northerners were beginning to realize just how much Jim Crow dragged down all facets of American society. The Brown Decisions For whatever combination of reasons, the Supreme Court unanimously declared in May 1954 that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”—thus overruling the central finding of Plessy. The Court went on to reject Plessy’s three supporting contentions...
eBook - ePub- Miriam E. David, Marilyn J. Amey(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...Alounso Antonio Gilzene Alounso Antonio Gilzene Gilzene, Alounso Antonio Briana Coleman Briana Coleman Coleman, Briana Ronetta Wards Ronetta Wards Wards, Ronetta Terah Venzant Chambers Terah Venzant Chambers Chambers, Terah Venzant Brown v. Board of Education Brown v. board of education 185 188 Brown v. Board of Education Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) was a momentous Supreme Court case that officially ended de jure (imposed by law) school segregation in the United States. A significant roadblock to achieving educational equality came in the Supreme Court’s earlier 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, whereby the Court defined and interpreted the 14th Amendment so that equal could mean separate. In Plessy, which stemmed from an incident in which an African American passenger refused to sit in a train car for Black people, the Court held it constitutional for there to be separate facilities for Black and White people as long as they were equally equipped. This interpretation would lead to decades of segregated public education, very little of which was equal in any meaningful way. The Brown decision is commonly associated with racial segregation at the elementary and secondary education (K–12) level. However, the long-term legal strategy employed by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) lawyers in the years leading up to the Brown ruling included establishing key legal precedents in higher education that created the foundation from which segregation in K–12 education could then be challenged. This entry discusses the legal argument that led to these precedents and how it was expanded to include K–12 education. The entry concludes by discussing the implications for other 14th Amendment–based civil rights protections. Understanding the Legal Argument in Brown: The Reconstruction Amendments The post–Civil War Reconstruction years (1865–1877) drastically changed the U.S...
eBook - ePubSupreme Court Decisions
Scenarios, Simulations, and Activities for Understanding and Evaluating 14 Landmark Court Cases (Grades 7-12)
- Jeffrey D. Stocks(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...C ASE 9: T HE S EGREGATED S CHOOL B ROWN V. B OARD OF E DUCATION OF T OPEKA (1954) DOI: 10.4324/9781003238379-9 F OR THE T EACHER Quick Reference The Issue: The case challenged state laws requiring separate school facilities for Black students. The Players: Linda Brown—Student who was forced to attend a Blacks-only school. The case bore her name, as the petitioner, but she really represented many other similar petitioners from other states. Thurgood Marshall—NAACP attorney, representing Brown, who argued the case before the Supreme Court. Earl Warren—Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Wrote the unanimous decision that “separate is inherently unequal.” The Ruling: Court ruled in favor of Brown, outlawing school segregation. Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Significance: Put a legal end to segregation in the United States, although it would take many years to actually abolish the practice. Background Brown v. Board of Education (1954) is important for several reasons. First and most obviously, this decision overturned the doctrine of “separate but equal,” established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1894), with the resounding statement that “separate is inherently unequal.” This sounded the death knell for legal racial segregation. Unfortunately, although the case called for the end of segregation, answering the call with actual integration required decades of judicial action, legislation, and community activism. This case also is important because it firmly established the Warren Court (the Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice Earl Warren) as perhaps the most activist court in U.S. history. The Warren Court churned out one landmark case after another that sought to secure the rights of the individual against a powerful government. Ironic is the fact that Earl Warren, the former Republican Governor of California, was appointed by fellow Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower...
eBook - ePubA History of Civil Rights Through Legislation: Constitutional Amendments, Laws, Supreme Court Decisions & Key Foreign Policy Acts
Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Complete Amendments, The Federalist Papers, Gettysburg Address, Voting Rights Act, Social Security Act, Loving v. Virginia and more
- U.S. Government, U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Congress(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Madison & Adams Press(Publisher)
...Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Table of Contents CASE SYLLABUS OPINION OF THE COURT CASE SYLLABUS Table of Contents Supreme Court of the United States 347 U.S. 483 BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Kansas No. 1 Argued: December 9, 1952; Reargued December 8, 1953 –- Decided: May 17, 1954 Segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment – even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors of white and Negro schools may be equal. Pp. 486-496. (a) The history of the Fourteenth Amendment is inconclusive as to its intended effect on public education. Pp. 489-490. (b) The question presented in these cases must be determined not on the basis of conditions existing when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, but in the light of the full development of public education and its present place in American life throughout the Nation. Pp. 492-493. (c) Where a State has undertaken to provide an opportunity for an education in its public schools, such an opportunity is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. P. 493. (d) Segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprives children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal. Pp. 493-494. (e) The "separate but equal" doctrine adopted in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, has no place in the field of public education. P. 495. (f) The cases are restored to the docket for further argument on specified questions relating to the forms of the decrees. Pp. 495-496. OPINION OF THE COURT Table of Contents Mr...
