Brown+v.+Board+of+Education

BASIC FACTS OF THE CASES (more than one) (check video, Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)

School segregation was permitted by local option in Kansas, but only in elementary schools. In 1950 the state capital, Topeka, operated four elementary schools for black children. African American parents and local activists from the NAACP challenged Topeka’s policy of segregated schooling. They filed their case in U.S. District Court in 1951. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas gave its name to the collection of cases that ended segregation in public schools. In 1950 the Topeka NAACP, led by McKinley Burnett, set out to organize a legal challenge to an 1879 State law that permitted racially segregated elementary schools in certain cities based on population.

MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE PLAINTIFF (for integration) (check Link 1)

MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE DEFENDANTS (for segregation) (check Link 1)
 * In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court had misinterpreted the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal protection of the laws did not allow for racial segregation. * The Fourteenth Amendment allowed the government to prohibit any discriminatory state action based on race, including segregation in public schools. * The Fourteenth Amendment did not specify whether the states would be allowed to establish segregated education. * Psychological testing demonstrated the harmful effects of segregation on the minds of African American children.


 * The Constitution did not require white and African American children to attend the same schools. * Social separation of blacks and whites was a regional custom; the states should be left free to regulate their own social affairs. * Segregation was not harmful to black people. * Whites were making a good faith effort to equalize the two educational systems. But because black children were still living with the effects of slavery, it would take some time before they were able to compete with white children in the same classroom.THE CHANGE IN THE COURT (leading to a decision) (check **Link 1**)

Justice Fred Vinson died in September 1953, and President Einsenhower appoints Earl Warren to chief justice. His leadership in producing a unanimous decision to overturn Plessy changed the course of American history.

THE COURT DECISION (in your own words) (check **Link 1** and Link 2)The Court ended up striking down segregation in education. Justice Earl Warren says that the seperate but equal doctrine applied to transportation, not education. Earl Warren wrote in the decision, "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

ENFORCING THE DECISION (discuss "with all deliberate speed) (Check Link 1)

The Brown decision called legal segregation unconstitutional. The Court called for all the states to end segregation "with all deliberate speed." Many whites welcomed the Brown decision, but some thought it was an attack on their way of life. Segregationists played on the fears and prejudices of their communities and launched a militant campaign of defiance and resistance.

THE IMPACT and LEGACY (Check **Link 1**)

People continued to be deeply divided on racial segregation. Blacks called for the Brown decision to be enforced. Both white southerners and blacks in the south were unprepared for the resistance of each other. The African American freedom struggle soon spread across the country. The original battle for school desegregation became part of broader campaigns for social justice. Over the next fifty years, this movement has come to include racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, and other groups, each demanding equal opportunity.