Transcript Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education
U. S. Supreme Court Decision
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 3rd 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, 1951.
• 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 14th Amendment had desegregated
schools in mind when they wrote the
Amendment in 1868. 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 14th 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.
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 14th Amendment?