1. “THE BROWN DECISION” By Christina Adams

2. 7 year old Linda Brown was not permitted to attend an all white school near her home. Her family sued and lost the case. Thurgood Marshal and the NAACP appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court

3. The case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, combined with several similar cases, reached the Supreme Court in December 1952 Thurgood Marshal argued that segregated schools were not and could not be equal to white schools, and for that reason, segregated schools violated the fourteenth amendment to the constitution

4. On May 17, 1954, the court delivered its decision The Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to separate school children by race.

5. The Brown decision reversed the Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. In 1896 the Supreme Court upheld Jim Crow laws and segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson The Case involved a Louisiana law requiring separate sections on trains for African Americans. This “Separate but Equal” doctrine provided a legal foundation for segregation in the South that lasted nearly 60 years.

6. The Courts decision called for integrating schools “with all deliberate speed” Many formed organizations against integrating

7. Confrontation in Little Rock In 1957 a federal judge ordered Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas to admit African American Students Arkansas governor Orval Faubus was opposed to integration He called out the states National Guard to prevent African Americans from entering the school. Armed National Guard turned away nine African American students on their first day of school.

8. For the first time since the Civil War a Southern State defied the Authority of the Federal Government. President Eisenhower threatened Faubus saying, that if he did not remove the National Guard, that the Federal government would act. A federal judge ruled that the governor had violated federal law Faubus removed the National guard Eisenhower sent hundreds of U.S. Soldiers to Little Rock to protect the students. 9 African American students entered the school.

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10. George E.C. Hayes, left, Thurgood Marshall, center, and James M. Nabrit, the lawyers who led the fight before the U.S. Supreme Court for abolition of segregation in public schools, descend the court steps in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 1954. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation is unconstitutional. http://www.historicaldocuments.com/BrownvBoardofEducation.htm

11. References: The American Journey McGraw-Hill National Geographic Society Chapter 17 and 29 http://www.historicaldocuments.com/BrownvBoardofEducation.h tm http://www.historicaldocuments.com/BrownvBoardofEducation.h tm “ 1954-1992 The Struggle for Black Equality” Harvard Sitkoff http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm