1954 Supreme Court Case Analysis

RULE: The court concluded that the segregation of African American school children “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.”

Lots of areas in the U.S. had segregated schools in 1954, held by “separate but equal.” In 1954, the NAACP was trying to end segregation. They filed class actions schools in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware, on behalf of the students and their families, trying to integrate schools. One of the most prominent cases was Brown v. Board of Education. Oliver Brown, the plaintiff, claimed that Topeka’s segregation violated the Equal Protection Laws Clause. He claimed segregated schools were not equal. This case went to the Supreme Court after the lower-level courts ruled that school the school segregations were equal to be constitutional.

In 1954, the Supreme Court took a step in history with the Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka by stating that, “In the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’, has no place. Separate facilities are inheritably unequal.” Little Rock, Arkansas a city in the upper south became a location of a controversial attempt to put the court order into effect when nine African American students were chosen to desegregate Central High in Little Rock. How did the Little Rock Nine affect America? Sanford Wexler stated in The Civil Rights Movement: An Eyewitness History,” its “effect would ripple across the nation and influence the growing Civil Rights Movement;” in addition, the Little Rock crisis forced the federal government

After the United States abolished slavery, the country passed three new Constitutional amendments. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th Amendment provided citizenship to newly freed slaves, and the 15th Amendment gave them the right to vote. However, the Supreme Court stated judgments and rulings that placed blacks in a degrading and an inferior position in the United States. Established from the Jim Crow Laws, throughout the years of 1877 to 1954, schools were segregated by law. Black people were not allowed to attend a white-dominant school. In 1957, Little Rock, Arkansas, nine African American students enrolled at Central High School, an all-white school, were prevented from entering the school because they were black. It caused conflict and controversy between the governor of Arkansas and the president of the united states, rebellion of society and the students (Civil Rights Movement), and in our society today, education is accessible to everyone.

The end to segregation started on May 17, 1954 with the Supreme Court’s ruling in “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that separated public schools for whites and blacks were illegal” (Beals, 1995, p. 12). By May 24, 1955 plans had been made to limit integration to Central High School.

The road to the historic desegregation of Little Rock Central High school began in the 1930’s when the NAACP tasked future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall with fighting segregation in schools. By 1950 he had helped to strike down segregation in universities in several states. In 1951, the NAACP aided parents of black children attending public schools in Topeka, Kansas in attempting to overturn the state’s segregation laws. After a three year court battle, the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education Topeka culminated in the abolishment of school segregation laws in 21 states. (Seeds 1)

As part of their journalism class students produced a newspaper with a collection of student-written articles about teen pregnancy and the impact of divorce on kids. As a result, the principal made the decision to delete the two articles from that edition of the school’s newspaper. Consequently, three students sued the school district alleging violation of their First Amendment rights.

In 1982, racial segregation in public schools began over the United States Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson’s, “separate but equal” doctrine, that lasted until the early 1950’s. This precedent legally enabled “separate” facilities for black students and white students as long as they were “equal”. During the turn of the 19th century, the term “Jim Crow” was used to refer to African Americans. This term would later be used as the name of the laws that kept African Americans from public functions and places. It would not be until 1954, that the “separate but equal” doctrine would be changed for good.

A long awaited a historical NAACP court case was won in 1954 after the Supreme Court made a ground making decision in the Brown vs. Board of Education verdict. A lawsuit was brought against the Board of Education which denied back student the ability to attend schools with whites. This court case overturned the previous decision of Plessy v. Ferguerson of 1896, and helped to defeat the notion that America could be “separate but equal”. As a result segregation was banned and deemed as illegal, providing African Americans with the ability to be provided the same educational advantages as their white counter part. Yet the laws remained restricted pertaining to public entities such as restaurants.

Ammar). It is clear from the Supreme Court's statements that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, as enunciated in Massiah v. United States and United States v. Henry, does not extend to the pre-indictment period. The taped conversations at issue in defendant's motions all took place prior to defendant's January 24, 2006 federal indictment while defendant was incarcerated for state parole violations. Even though defendant faced charges in state court, because defendant had yet to be charged in a federal indictment, defendant's right to counsel had not yet attached with respect to the federal charges. The Court denies Henry’s argument for suppression based on the Sixth Amendment right to

Our ability to admit that the federal government played a role in this segregation, allowed us to treat the situation. Now that we face racism and segregation that is much more hidden and attributed to other factors and causes, it makes us more difficult to identify de jure segregation, but it is still ultimately essential for us to do so in order to see any form of advancement. The Supreme Court’s support in this case brought about nearly free reign in the District Court’s regulation and enforcement capabilities.

Therefore, it unanimously decided that all schools should be integrated. The only defective part of the decision was that the Supreme Court did not specify a time frame in which all schools had to be integrated. This major flaw in the verdict allowed southern states to take as much time as they wanted to ‘integrate’ the schools. The article entitled “Text of Supreme Court Decision Outlawing Negro Segregation in the Public Schools” was published in the New York Times on May 18, 1954, the very next day after the decision was made public. This article enlightens the nation on how the judges decided to tackle the question “Does segregation of children in public schools solely, though the physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal education opportunities?” (“Text”). Each judge had to take into account everything he heard throughout the trials. All of the judges decided that segregation did and does affect the education of minority children.

The Browns, an African American Family living in Topeka, Kansas, along with the NAACP requested an injunction that would forbid the segregation of Topeka's public schools. This along with similar cases were grouped together and presented in front of the Supreme Court (Cray 1-2). On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Warren read the decision of the unanimous Court: "We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does...We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment” (Schwartz, 198). The Supreme Court struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy for public education, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and required the desegregation of schools across America (Cray, 1-2) .

In 1954, it was determined by the Supreme Court that it was unconstitutional to have separate educational facilities, in the Brown vs. Board of Education. This overturned the Jim Crow laws that stated that black and white people could be separate and it was equal. To

Throughout the late nineteen fifties and sixties, during the civil rights movement, segregation was still prevalent in public schools. It was still uncommon for schools to be integrated even after the passing of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court case in 1954 that resulted in a vote to end racial segregation in public schools after the hearing in Brown v. Board of Education (PBS). In Little Rock, Arkansas, the fight to integrate their public schools was just beginning. The Little Rock Nine became major advocates of desegregating schools and enforcing the new law on desegregation during the civil rights movement.