Brown VS Board of

Education By: Kaitlyn Cramer

Brief History

• Immediately after the Civil War, segregation began to rise in the South.

http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~srussell/2004/dave/civilwar.html

• The 1800’s were characterized by lynchings as well as chain gangs

http://www.markerhistory.com/tag/campbell-county/

Jim Crow

• In 1890, Louisiana passes the Jim Crow law that mandated separate but equal accommodations for blacks and whites.

http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow

How did schools become integrated?

• Brown v. Board of Education was actually not the beginning.

• It all started with the famous case called “Plessy v. Ferguson”

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Plessy attempted to sit in an all-white railroad car. After refusing to sit in the black railway carriage car.

• Plessy was found guilty on the grounds that the law was a reasonable exercise of the state’s police powers.

http://www.lawnix.com/cases/plessy-ferguson.html

Plessy Did Not Win

• The courts believe that as long as the facilities were equal, people could have separate facilities based on color.

Picture from: Google

http://www.lawnix.com/cases/plessy-ferguson.html

It wasn’t until the 50’s that the case was put to the test

• Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas• This case was initiated by members of the local

NAACP chapter in Topeka, Kansas. Thirteen parents volunteered to participate.

• In the summer of 1950, they took their children to schools in their neighborhoods and attempted to enroll them for the upcoming school year. All were refused admission.

• These parents filed suit against the Topeka Board of Education on behalf of their twenty children.

Segregation in Education• Brown v. Board of Education• Argued on December 8, 1952• Reargued on December 7, 1953• Decided on May 17, 1954

• Key People• Thurgood Marshal • Rev. Oliver Brown• Linda Brown• Chief Justice Earl Warren

http://www.nps.gov/brvb/historyculture/upload/marshall.pdf

Brown v. Board of Education

• Several cases were combined into one:• Delaware- Belton v. Gebhart• Kansas- Brown v. Board of Education• South Carolina- Briggs v. Elliot• Virginia- Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County•Washington, DC- Bolling v. Melvin Sharpe

http://www.nps.gov/brvb/historyculture/upload/marshall.pdf

Supreme Court Arguments • The Segregationists’ Argument• The Constitution did not require white and African American children to attend the same schools.•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 children in the same classroom.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/challengers.html

Supreme Court Arguments• Challengers of Segregation Arguments• The Plessy v. Ferguson decision, they argued, had misinterpreted the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment—• The authors of this amendment had not

intended to allow segregated schools. Nor did existing law consider the harmful social and psychological effects of segregation.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/challengers.html

Court Decision• “Segregation of white and colored children in public

schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group...Any language in contrary to this finding is rejected. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” —Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/courts-decision.html

Work cited• http://www.pbs.org.html• http://comminfo.rutgers.edu.html• http://www.markerhistory.com• http://americanhistory.si.edu.html• http://www.lawnix.com.html