Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Context In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in the Plessy v. Ferguson case that as long as they were equal that separate facilities (restaurants, theatres, restrooms, public schools) were legal for blacks and whites. However, most black schools were inferior to white schools. Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Context Continued In Topeka, Kansas, a black 3 rd grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a Railroad switchyard to get to her elementary school. There was a white elementary school only 7 blocks away. She was turned down for enrollment in the white school. Brown’s father went to McKinley Burnett, head of Topeka’s branch of the NAACP. He agreed to help, he felt that they had the “right plaintiff at the right time”. Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Context Continued U. S. District Court for the District of Kansas heard the case June 25-26, One expert witness for the plaintiff, Dr Hugh W. Speer, testified that if the colored children were denied the experience of associating with white children who were 90% of our National society in which the children lived, that their curriculum is greatly curtailed. Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Context Continued The Board of Education’s defense was that segregation in the schools would prepare them for segregation in adulthood. They argued that segregated schools were not detrimental. They used examples such as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver. On one hand the judges agreed with the plaintiff, but on the other hand Plessy v. Ferguson was used as a precedent. They ruled in favor of the Board of Ed. Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Context Continued Two events happened before the case was argued before the Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall who was chief counsel for the NAACP began to help argue the case. (Marshall later became supreme court justice, himself) Chief Justice Fred Vinson, who was against overturning Plessy v Ferguson, died suddenly Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Context Continued Earl Warren of California was appointed to the Supreme Court in Vinson’s place. Warren was born in Los Angles but grew up in Bakersfield. His father was a railroad car repairman. Warren worked summers for the railroad and saw first hand the problems of the common working people. He also experienced the anti-Asian sentiment on the West coast. He graduated from the Univ. of California at Berkeley, did a stint in the Army during WWI, and later worked as a prosecutor for Almeda District Attorney’s office. He was elected Attorney Gen. of Cal. And later became governor of California. Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Context Continued The NAACP appealed the case to the Supreme Court and there it was combined with several other cases of segregation in South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. The judges were asked to make their decision based on whether authors of the 14 th Amendment had desegregated schools in mind when they wrote the Amendment in Did segregation deprive black children of equal protection of the law? Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Main Points 1. Each child has a right to education on equal terms. –In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. 2. Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Main Points Continued 3. Segregating the races denotes an inferiority of the Negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of the child to learn. 4. “Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected “in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place.” 5. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Plaintiffs by reason of segregation are deprived of equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14 th Amendment. Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Significance The Brown decision gave orders for desegregation but did not set time limit for schools to be desegregated. Many schools dragged their feet. In 1954, after the Brown decision, Groups such as the White Citizen’s Council in Mississippi arose to promote the advantages of segregation and dangers of integration. State of Mississippi formed a “Sovereignty Commission” to spy on civil rights organizers, intimidate white integration sympathizers and to work with sheriffs to collect and spread information on outside agitators or blacks who joined the NAACP. Brown v. Board of Education U. S. Supreme Court Decision

Historical Significance In 1957, crisis at Central High in Little Rock, AR. 1962, James Meredith entered the Univ. of Mississippi after being turned down many times. He had to be escorted in by U. S. Marshals amid violence and riots. Civil Rights Act passed in 1964.

Questions to Consider Why were the parents afraid of desegregation? What would have happened if the NAACP had not found the “right plaintiff at the right time”? Would there have been a different outcome if the Justices had not been asked to base their decision on upholding the 14 th Amendment?