What Brown vs. Board of Education should have said?
“The legacy of Brown v. Board of Education ,” she added, “should be to empower parents with the ability to choose the right school for their child and eliminate the ability of the state to consign...
Who played a key role in Brown vs Board of Education?
Hoosier Minton played key role in Brown vs. Board of Education case. Shortly after Justice Sherman Minton's retirement from the Supreme Court in 1956, Gov. George N. Craig commissioned his bust to be placed on display at the Statehouse, 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis.
Why was Brown vs Board of Education a landmark case?
Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v.
What Brown v. Board of Education should have said?
“The legacy of Brown v. Board of Education,” she added, “should be to empower parents with the ability to choose the right school for their child and eliminate the ability of the state to ...
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Who led the Brown vs Board case?
Justice Earl WarrenOn May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.
Who was considered the plaintiff in the Brown vs Board of Education case?
The plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their 20 children. The suit called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation.
Who argued the Brown vs Board of Education case?
Thurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs (he argued the Briggs case), and his fellow lawyers provided testimony from more than 30 social scientists affirming the deleterious effects of segregation on Black and white children.
How many cases were involved in Brown vs Board of Education?
five separateBoard of Education (1954, 1955) The case that came to be known as Brown v. Board of Education was actually the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools.
Who represented the Board of Education?
Board of Education, was bundled with four related cases and a decision was rendered on May 17, 1954. Three lawyers, Thurgood Marshall (center), chief counsel for the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund and lead attorney on the Briggs case, with George E. C. Hayes (left) and James M.
Why did Brown v. Board of Education happen?
In each of the cases, African American students had been denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public education to be segregated by race. They argued that such segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
How did Brown vs Board of Education start?
In the case that would become most famous, a plaintiff named Oliver Brown filed a class-action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951, after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied entrance to Topeka's all-white elementary schools.
What was the Board of Education argument?
They argued that keeping black students separate from white students violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Brown v. Board of Education was a consolidated case, meaning that several related cases were combined to be heard before the Supreme Court.
Who was the president during Brown vs Board of Education?
President Dwight D. EisenhowerIt was 1954, and the Supreme Court had just issued the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision banning racial segregation in schools. In his first news conference afterward, President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose not to strongly endorse it.
What were the five cases in Brown v. Board of Education?
Brown itself was not a single case, but rather a coordinated group of five lawsuits against school districts in Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
Where did one of the five cases that was part of Brown v. Board of Education originate?
Five cases from Delaware, Kansas, Washington, D.C., South Carolina and Virginia were appealed to the United States Supreme Court when none of the cases was successful in the lower courts. The Supreme Court combined these cases into a single case which eventually became Brown v. Board of Education.
Was Brown vs Board of Education successful?
The legal victory in Brown did not transform the country overnight, and much work remains. But striking down segregation in the nation's public schools provided a major catalyst for the civil rights movement, making possible advances in desegregating housing, public accommodations, and institutions of higher education.
What is the plaintiffs main concern about the state of public schools in Brown versus Board of Education?
The Brown case addresses whether the plaintiff has been afforded equal protection of the laws relative to those attending public schools. The Brown case addresses whether the plaintiff has been afforded equal protection of the laws relative to those attending public schools.
What was the main reason African American parents sued a Kansas school board in 1954?
In his lawsuit, Brown claimed that schools for Black children were not equal to the white schools, and that segregation violated the so-called “equal protection clause” of the 14th Amendment, which holds that no state can “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
What Court case did Brown vs the Board of Education overturn?
Plessy v. FergusonThe decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka on May 17, 1954 is perhaps the most famous of all Supreme Court cases, as it started the process ending segregation. It overturned the equally far-reaching decision of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.
How did the Brown vs Board of Education impact the Civil Rights Movement?
The legal victory in Brown did not transform the country overnight, and much work remains. But striking down segregation in the nation's public schools provided a major catalyst for the civil rights movement, making possible advances in desegregating housing, public accommodations, and institutions of higher education.
Who was the plaintiff in the Brown v. Board of Education case?
In the case that would become most famous, a plaintiff named Oliver Brown filed a class-action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951, after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied entrance to Topeka’s all-white elementary schools.
Who was the chief attorney for Brown v. Board of Education?
Board of Education of Topeka . Thurgood Marshall, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, served as chief attorney for the plaintiffs.
What states acted in accordance with the verdict?
While Kansas and some other states acted in accordance with the verdict, many school and local officials in the South defied it. In one major example, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called out the state National Guard to prevent Black students from attending high school in Little Rock in 1957.
What was the first act of desegregation?
Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , backed by enforcement by the Justice Department, began the process of desegregation in earnest. This landmark piece of civil rights legislation was followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
What happened to Rosa Parks in 1955?
In 1955, a year after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and would lead to other boycotts, sit-ins and demonstrations (many of them led by Martin Luther King Jr .), in a movement that would eventually lead to the toppling of Jim Crow laws across the South.
What was Jim Crow's law?
The ruling constitutionally sanctioned laws barring African Americans from sharing the same buses, schools and other public facilities as whites —known as “Jim Crow” laws —and established the “separate but equal” doctrine that would stand for the next six decades.
When did Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka come to the Supreme Court?
When Brown’s case and four other cases related to school segregation first came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court combined them into a single case under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka .
What was the landmark decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education?
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the U.S. Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for students of different races to be unconstitutional.
What was the effect of Brown vs Board of Education on the South?
The decision in Brown v. Board of Education forced the desegregation of public schools in 21 states and intensified resistance in the South, particularly among white supremacist groups and government officials sympathetic to the segregationist cause. In Virginia, U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. started the Massive Resistance movement, which sought to pass new state laws and policies as a means of keeping public schools from being desegregated. In one of the most notorious instances of resistance to the decision, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out the National Guard in 1957 to keep black students from entering Little Rock Central High School.
How many families were involved in the Topeka class action lawsuit?
n 1950, the Topeka Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized another case, this time a class action suit comprised of 13 families.
When did segregation begin in Kansas?
Segregation in Schools. Elementary schools in Kansas had been segregated since 1879 by a state law allowing cities with populations of 15,000 or more to establish separate schools for black children and white children. African American parents in Kansas began filing court challenges as early as 1881.
When did the NAACP appeal to the Supreme Court?
The plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1952 and were joined by four similar NAACP-sponsored cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
Which amendment prohibited the operation of separate public schools based on race?
The Justices decided to rehear the case in the fall with special attention paid to whether the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prohibited the operation of separate public schools based on race.
When did black parents start filing court challenges in Kansas?
African American parents in Kansas began filing court challenges as early as 1881. By 1950, 11 court challenges to segregated schools had reached the Kansas State Supreme Court. None of the cases successfully overturned the state law.
When was Brown v. Board of Education ruled unconstitutional?
Judgment of May 31, 1955, in Brown v. Board of Education (Brown II) – a year after the ruling that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional – directing that schools be desegregated "with all deliberate speed"
What was the Board of Education case?
Board of Education case of 1954 legally ended decades of racial segregation in America's public schools. Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.
Why was the Supreme Court decision to hear the Harry Briggs case important?
In 1952 the Supreme Court agreed to hear all five cases collectively. This grouping was significant because it represented school segregation as a national issue , not just a southern one. Thurgood Marshall, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs (he argued the Briggs case), and his fellow lawyers provided testimony from more than 30 social scientists affirming the deleterious effects of segregation on Black and white children. These arguments were similar to those alluded to in the Dissenting Opinion of Judge Waites Waring in Harry Briggs, Jr., et al. v. R. W. Elliott, Chairman, et al. (shown above).
What states were involved in the segregation of elementary schools?
Five separate cases were filed in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware: Oliver Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al.
How many questions did the 14th amendment ask?
The arguments were scheduled for the following term. The Court wanted briefs from both sides that would answer five questions, all having to do with the attorneys' opinions on whether or not Congress had segregation in public schools in mind when the 14th amendment was ratified.
Why was the Bolling vs Sharpe case argued?
Because Washington, D.C., is a Federal territory governed by Congress and not a state, the Bolling v. Sharpe case was argued as a fifth amendment violation of "due process." The fourteenth amendment only mentions states, so this case could not be argued as a violation of "equal protection," as were the other cases. When a District of Columbia parent, Gardner Bishop, unsuccessfully attempted to get 11 African-American students admitted into a newly constructed white junior high school, he and the Consolidated Parents Group filed suit against C. Melvin Sharpe, president of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia. Charles Hamilton Houston, the NAACP's special counsel, former dean of the Howard University School of Law, and mentor to Thurgood Marshall, took up the Bolling case.
What was the case of Moton High School?
English class at Moton High School, a school for Black students, one of several photographs entered as evidence in the case Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, which was one of five cases that the Supreme Court consolidated under Brown v. Board of Education , ca. 1951
Who was denied admission to the University of Missouri Law School?
Canada (1938) Beginning in 1936, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund decided to take on the case of Lloyd Gaines, a graduate student of Lincoln University (an all-black college) who applied to the University of Missouri Law School but was denied because of his race.
When did Heman sweat apply to law school?
In 1946 , an African American man named Heman Sweat applied to the University of Texas' "white" law school. Hoping that it would not have to admit Sweat to the "white" law school if a "black" school already existed, elsewhere on the University's campus, the state hastily set up an underfunded "black" law school.
What was the result of the Plessy decision?
Sadly, as a result of the Plessy decision, in the early twentieth century the Supreme Court continued to uphold the legality of Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial discrimination. In the case of Cumming v.
What did the Plessy decision mean?
The Plessy Decision. Although the Declaration of Independence stated that "All men are created equal," due to the institution of slavery, this statement was not to be grounded in law in the United States until after the Civil War (and, arguably, not completely fulfilled for many years thereafter). In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified ...
What were the laws of many states that blacks and whites could not use the same public facilities?
In other words, the laws of many states decreed that blacks and whites could not use the same public facilities, ride the same buses, attend the same schools, etc. These laws came to be known as Jim Crow laws.
Why was the University of Maryland rejecting black applicants?
Disappointed that the University of Maryland School of Law was rejecting black applicants solely because of their race, beginning in 1933 Thurgood Marshall (who was himself rejected from this law school because of its racial acceptance policies) decided to challenge this practice in the Maryland court system.
When did the Louisiana state laws start to be challenged?
Although many people felt that these laws were unjust, it was not until the 1890s that they were directly challenged in court. In 1892, an African-American man named Homer Plessy refused to give up his seat to a white man on a train in New Orleans, as he was required to do by Louisiana state law.
What did Brown v. Board of Education argue about?
Brown v. Board of Education cited the Louisiana Railway Car Act as a reference to the notion of separate but equal being unconstitutional; Oliver Brown maintained that the segregation of educational systems was an implicit denial of equal rights
What is the significance of Brown v. Board of Education?
Brown v. Board of Education addressed a circumstance that had taken place within the State of Kansas in the city of Topeka ; Linda Brown, who was a third grade student, had been forced to attend a segregated school – the African American students in this school were forbidden from attending school with Caucasian students:
Which state was named as the defendant in the case of the Board of Education?
The Board of Education of the State of Kansas was named as the defendant; this Board of Education was cited as violating the Constitution upon enacting segregation within the public educational system
Who was the plaintiff in the Board of Education case?
Board of Education case: Oliver Brown – named as both the plaintiff, as well as the father of Linda Brown – contended that the separation and segregation taking place within public American educational systems were a direct violation of equal rights afforded to every citizen of the United States.
What happened to Linda Brown?
Board of Education addressed a circumstance that had taken place within the State of Kansas in the city of Topeka; Linda Brown, who was a third grade student, had been forced to attend a segregated school – the African American students in this school were forbidden from attending school with Caucasian students: The Case Profile of Brown v.
What was the Brown v Board of Education case?
Four similar cases were combined with the Brown complaint and presented to the US Supreme Court as Brown v. Board of Education. The court's landmark ruling on the case on May 17, 1954, led to the desegregation of the US education system.
When did the Supreme Court hear the Brown v Board of Education case?
December 9-11, 1952 - The Supreme Court hears arguments in Brown v. Board of Education.
What happened to Linda Brown?
Her enrollment in the all-white school was blocked, leading her family to bring a lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education. Four similar cases were combined with the Brown complaint and presented to the US Supreme Court as Brown v. Board of Education. The court's landmark ruling on the case on May 17, 1954, led to the desegregation of the US education system.
What did the Supreme Court rule in Plessy v. Ferguson?
Ferguson that a Louisiana statue requiring separate but equal railroad cars for African-American and white passengers did not conflict with the 13th and 14th Amendments. This case led to the “separate but equal” doctrine and the Jim Crow laws regarding segregation of other facilities for public use (parks, restaurants, etc.).
What was the name of the Supreme Court case that the NAACP won in 1951?
Joining in the appeal are cases from Delaware, Washington, Virginia and South Carolina. The case is now known as Brown v. Board of Education.
What was the key piece presented against segregation?
One of the key pieces presented against segregation was psychologist Kenneth Clark's "Doll Test" in the 1940s. Black children were shown two dolls, identical except for color, to determine racial perception and preference. A majority preferred the white doll and associated it with positive characteristics. The court cited Clark's study, saying, "To separate [African-American children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."
What was Brown II ruling?
May 31, 1955 - The Supreme Court hands down Brown II, a ruling meant to outline the process of school desegregation.
Separate But Equal Doctrine
Brown v. Board of Education Verdict
- When Brown’s case and four other cases related to school segregation first came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court combined them into a single case under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Thurgood Marshall, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, served as chief attorney for the plaintiffs. (Thirteen years l...
Little Rock Nine
- In its verdict, the Supreme Court did not specify how exactly schools should be integrated, but asked for further arguments about it. In May 1955, the Court issued a second opinion in the case (known as Brown v. Board of Education II), which remanded future desegregation cases to lower federal courts and directed district courts and school boards to proceed with desegregation “wit…
Impact of Brown v. Board of Education
- Though the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board didn’t achieve school desegregation on its own, the ruling (and the steadfast resistance to it across the South) fueled the nascent civil rights movementin the United States. In 1955, a year after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her arrest spa…
Sources
- History – Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment, United States Courts. Brown v. Board of Education, The Civil Rights Movement: Volume I (Salem Press). Cass Sunstein, “Did Brown Matter?” The New Yorker, May 3, 2004. Brown v. Board of Education, PBS.org. Richard Rothstein, Brown v. Board at 60, Economic Policy Institute, April 17, 2014.
Plessy v. Ferguson
The NAACP
- In 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was officially formed to champion the modern Civil Rights Movement. In its early years its primary goals were to eliminate lynching and to obtain fair trials for Black Americans. By the 1930s, however, the activities of the NAACP began focusing on the complete integration of American society. One o…
Five Cases Consolidated Under Brown v. Board of Education
- By the 1950s, the NAACP was beginning to support challenges to segregation at the elementary school level. Five separate cases were filed in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware: 1. Oliver Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al. 2. Harry Briggs, Jr., et al. v. R.W. Elliott, et...
Supreme Court Rehears Arguments
- Reargument of the Brown v. Board of Educationcases at the Federal level took place December 7-9, 1953. Throngs of spectators lined up outside the Supreme Court by sunrise on the morning of December 7, although arguments did not actually commence until one o'clock that afternoon. Spottswood Robinson began the argument for the appellants, and Thurgood Marshall followed h…
The Warren Court
- In September 1953, President Eisenhower had appointed Earl Warren, governor of California, as the new Supreme Court chief justice. Eisenhower believed Warren would follow a moderate course of action toward desegregation. His feelings regarding the appointment are detailed in the closing paragraphs of a letter he wrote to E. E. "Swede" Hazlett, a childhood friend (shown above…
The Supreme Court Ruling
- Finally, on May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the unanimous opinion: school segregation by law was unconstitutional (shown above). Arguments were to be heard during the next term to determine exactly how the ruling would be imposed. Just over one year later, on May 31, 1955, Warren read the Court's unanimous decision, now referred to as Brown II(also shown a…
Reaction
- Despite two unanimous decisions and careful, if not vague, wording, there was considerable resistance to the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. In addition to the obvious disapproving segregationists were some constitutional scholars who felt that the decision went against legal tradition by relying heavily on data supplied by social scientists rather than precede…