The Brown V. Board Of Education Essay

White families felt no remorse, claiming that whites were rightfully separated for superiority reasons. Black families felt anger because their children walked through dangerous parts of town for an unequal education. When this was brought up to Kansas’s Board of Education, they believed there was nothing wrong with the education system. The Board argued that all blacks received the same and equal opportunities as white students in other schools. They concluded that their actions were constitutional, as it followed the “separate but equal” ruling established in 1896. The Brown family felt their Fourteenth Amendment was violated. ("Brown v. Board of Education"). The Fourteenth Amendments states to provide equal protection for all citizens of the United States ("14th Amendment"). They appealed their case to the federal district court and, eventually, to the Supreme Court of the United States as well. ("Brown v. Board of Education (1954) School Segregation, Equal Protection."). The Brown vs. Board of Education case was created and trialed in front of Warren Court. As the Chief Justice, Earl Warren’s influence on other Justices would play an important role in the final decision. Warren started the end to segregation. It became the beginning of a court case that would alter black American lives forever.

Education has long been regarded as a valuable asset for all of America's youth. Yet, when this benefit is denied to a specific group, measures must be taken to protect its educational right. In the 1950's, a courageous group of activists launched a legal attack on segregation in schools. At the head of this attack was NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall; his legal strategies would contribute greatly to the dissolution of educational segregation.

of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could

When Warren began as Supreme Court Chief Justice,32 one of the early cases he faced was the very controversial Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case,33 which presented the issue of whether "separate but equal" facilities for different races violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as previously allowed by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson.34 Before Warren's appointment, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Fred Vinson was very divided on whether to overrule Plessy.35 However, under Warren's leadership and persuasion, the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous decision in overruling Plessy and finding the belief of "separate but equal" unconstitutional.36 Warren faced public outrage, including impeachment efforts, particularly from the south, where such cases were most prevalent, due to the unpopular Brown decision.37

“Separate but not equal”! Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This case violated the 14th Amendment and was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the foundations of the civil rights movement. This movement helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not equal at all. The argument was allowing black students to attend all-white schools. Many African American children had to walk very far to get to school. Some children even had to walk miles. Parents like Linda Brown knew that this was not right. In Topeka, Kansas, a little African American girl had to walk miles to get to school. Her father knew this was not right, and decided to go to court with many other black parents, that issued the same problem. This is when the fought for equal education began.

Another aspect of Brown Vs. Board of Education which helped contribute to it being a successful and therefor pivotal case was that historical background to the case. Part of the historical background to the case is what caused Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown to sue the Board of Education. They were suing the "School board for denying their Eight-year-old daughter , Linda , admission to a school only 5 blocks from the house…solely because she was black"(Patrick 48). Although they had seemingly what was legally right on their side along with that the "NAACP provided these parents with legal help"(Patrick 48). This proved to be a substantial help to the Browns because the "NAACP legal counsel successfully argued a number of Supreme Court cases"(Patrick 48).

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) the United States Supreme Court upheld racial segregation of passengers in railroad coaches as required by Louisiana law. Three years later the Supreme Court was asked to review its first school case dealing with equal treatment of school children. In Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education (1899) the court found that the temporary cessation of services for minority high-school children did not violate equal protection even though services continued at the high-school for Caucasian children. The Court reasoned that the closing of the school was based on economic considerations, and was not found to represent bad faith or an abuse of discretion. The court concluded that although all must share the burdens and receive the benefits of taxation, school finance was a matter belonging to the states and federal interference without a clear and unmistakable disregard for constitutional rights would be inappropriate (Cambron-McCabe, McCarthy, & Thomas, 2004).

Things did not get better for African Americans until the case of Brown VS the Kansas Board of Education in 1954. Oliver Brown was the father of Linda, a little girl who had to walk six miles every day to get to the school for black children. Working for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), thirteen parents volunteered to enroll their children in White schools. Each enrollment request was denied. With Brown as the leading plaintiff, they used these instances of segregation to make a case against the Kansas Board of Education. The federal court ruled that Separate but Equal was substantially constitutional. Unhappy with this ruling, Brown appealed to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled that every case of segregation proved that the Jim Crow laws go against the fourteenth amendment. Although the fourteenth amendment does not specifically state that

The Brown V. Board of Education case began as five separate cases before they were combined and heard by The Supreme Court. The original Brown case was Brown V. Board of Education of the city of Topeka Kansas that was heard in 1951. Thirteen parents of twenty students who attended school in the district filed this class action lawsuit. All twenty of these children were denied admission in the schools that were closer to their home based on solely on the fact that they were black. They were told they had to go to a

Board of Education. This case was filed against Topeka, Kansas school board by Oliver Brown. Oliver Brown was a parent of one of the children that were refused access to Topeka’s white schools. Oliver Brown challenged the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause because the black schools were never equal to the education of the white schools. The federal district court dismissed the claim, and said that the segregated public school was “substantially” equal enough to the public white school. Brown now brought the case to the Supreme Court. The Court made the decision that the segregated schools were violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment. They decided that a good education must be available to both blacks and whites. A year later, in the second part of the case, the Supreme Court ordered all schools to integrate as quickly as

In the late 1940s, lawyers for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) argued a series of cases before the supreme court. In the Brown vs. Board Education of Topeka, Kansas court case, the court ruled on May 17, 1954 that having separate schools for blacks and whites was very unconstitutional. Imagine going to a school about 2 miles away from your house when there is a school a couple of blocks from you house but you can't since it's a white school. That's what many African American children faced.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was argued on December 9, 1952; the attorney who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs was Thurgood Marshall, who later served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court (1967–91). The case was reargued on December 8, 1953, to address the question of whether the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment would have understood it to be inconsistent with racial segregation in public education. The 1954 decision found that the historical evidence bearing on the issue was inconclusive.

Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was a case that also involved discrimination and inequality. It was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in May, 1954. This case focuses on the segregation of white and black children in public education. In this case Brown argues that segregation based on race, violates the Constitution because in public schools’ African American children were denied equal rights. White children were considered inferior to the black children. The Supreme Court decided that segregated public schools provided unequal schooling for students, and that school segregation was therefore unconstitutional. The “Separate but Equal” law continued to open wider gaps between blacks and whites. Blacks used separate water fountains, restrooms, hospitals, etc. All Public facilities were segregated. Restrictions were also placed on voting rights for blacks. They were granted the right to vote earlier in the 15th Amendment but it was limited by asking for literacy tests, and the redrawing of lines by southern state legislators. A racist ideology was still implanted in the minds of many; blacks were still inferior to the white color. Another attempt to freedom was the opening of the National Association for the advancement for colored people (NAACP). The goal of this organization was to end public segregation and regain the right to vote. The case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), also influenced the

This was until the Oliver Brown case; Oliver Brown had enough of sending his daughter an unnecessary distance to attend a Black School, when there was a White School nearby. He decided to take his case to the Supreme Court, with the help of his Black lawyer, Thurgood Marshall and the added support of the NAACP group, his case was a success. The fact that his case was lead by a black lawyer was unusual making the success even more celebratory. In 1954, segregated schools were declared to be illegal by the Supreme Court. With the new Supreme Court ruling many states gradually integrated their schools, giving Black Americans a better chance at a substantial education.

In May 17, 1954 The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessey v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Supreme Court as the nation 's first black justice. August 1955 Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan was visiting family