Brown Vs. Board Of Education Exhibit
On Friday April 24, I ventured out to the Krannert Art Museum to visit the Brown vs. Board of Education exhibit. About fifty some odd yrs ago, the United States was practically transformed by that one court case. The Brown Vs. Board of Education case was, of course, a monumental and significant court room decision because it ended segregation in schools, which also later led to further actions towards ending segregation completely.
When I arrived at the museum I noticed the area was very quiet and vast with art. It did have a more scholarly type of atmosphere one might say. It just seemed like the kind of place that only intellectuals would go to. So of course I felt out of place.
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Surprisingly enough to me, it was predominately white! I was actually thinking that there would be at least some black people in attendance or more, but there were none in sight. I was the only one. For a second I felt a bit upset that, as a people, African Americans couldn’t appreciate the commemoration of such an important event. It made me feel like we didn’t understand the actual change that took place. That is more than likely because we take our forefather’s actions for granted. Then again, I just disregarded the thought as we [blacks] all do sometimes, and just rationalized my unsettled thoughts by thinking that, “Well it is Saturday. Maybe people have better things to do rather than honor those who fought for our natural human rights.”
Again, I naturally thought that the exhibit was feared to black people until I saw this one series of pictures. There were five pictures. In the picture was one white woman and one black woman. They were both sitting in a chair. The entire setting was in black and white. In the first picture they both sat back to back. In the second picture the white woman forces the black woman out of the chair. The third one shows the black woman returning to fight for the seat. Then the fourth one shows the white woman resisting. Finally in the last picture, both of the women are sitting down again, just as they were in the first picture. Now I must say that when I
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was a milestone in American history, as it began the long process of racial integration, starting with schools. Segregated schools were not equal in quality, so African-American families spearheaded the fight for equality. Brown v. Board stated that public schools must integrate. This court decision created enormous controversy throughout the United States. Without this case, the United States may still be segregated today.
The case of brown v. board of education was one of the biggest turning points for African Americans to becoming accepted into white society at the time. Brown vs. Board of education to this day remains one of, if not the most important cases that African Americans have brought to the surface for the better of the United States. Brown v. Board of Education was not simply about children and education (Silent Covenants pg 11); it was about being equal in a society that claims African Americans were treated equal, when in fact they were definitely not. This case was the starting point for many Americans to realize that separate but equal did not work. The separate but equal label did not make sense either, the
The very first time I ever went to an art museum, I was miserable. I was ten years old, and visiting New York City for the first time, and my father who has worked tirelessly to raise my siblings and me to have an appreciation for higher culture dragged us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I cried within fifteen minutes of being there. All the people made me feel claustrophobic, and I was so set in my misery that I refused to try to enjoy the art. My mother, with all the patience that mothers are gifted with, took me through the museum. She entertained me with stories of when her and my father first fell in love in the city; rushed lunch dates in the museum, the halfway point between his job and her school. Gradually, we moved away from the more heavily populated galleries, and then it happened.
Ever since the founding of the United States of America, blacks have continuously been considered inferior to the white race. In the year of 1954, a substantial advancement in the fight for equality for blacks was prevalent. Countless prominent leaders of the United States realized the injustices that the blacks were forced to endure daily. Stated blatantly in the Declaration of Independence, it is said that all men are created equally. Disregarding the opinions of the men in the South, people began to realize that it was time to truly consider every man who is a citizen of the United States as equals. A life where segregation was not prevalent in schools, restaurants, theatres, parks, buses, and all public
The book “Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents” is Waldo E. Martin’s observation on not just the landmark case of Brown v. Board but also the institutionalized racism that was overcome to get there. It also documents other cases that Brown v. Board built upon to get the decision that challenged “separate but equal”. In this text Martin gives a glimpse into not just what the court order did from a legislative standpoint, but from a human standpoint, what happened to the people, community, and society in general both prior and in the wake of the of this monumental decision.
The Brown v. Board of Education was a case that was initiated by members of the local NAACP (National association Advancement of Colored People) organization in Topeka, Kansas where thirteen parents volunteered to participate of the segregation during school. Parents took their children to schools in their neighborhoods in the summer of 1950 and attempted to enroll them for the upcoming school year. All students were refused admission and were forced to attend one of the four schools in the city for African Americans. For most parents and students, this involved traveling some distance from their homes. These parents filed suit against the Topeka Board of Education on behalf of their twenty children. Oliver Brown who was a minister, was the first parent to suit against the problem, so the case came to be named after his last name. Three local lawyers, Charles Bledsoe, Charles Scott and John Scott, were assisted by Robert Carter and Jack Greenberg from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Walking into a lecture hall in Gregory Hall, I really didn’t know what to expect. I dressed as I would any other day; an Abercrombie shirt, a pair of frayed shorts and some casual sandals. I sat towards the front of the room and arrived slightly early to ensure a good seat. The name of this Brown v. Board education discussion was entitled, "Rethinking Slavery: 1800-1861,” and was arranged by the Mellon initiative.
of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could
In 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States was confronted with the controversial Brown v. Board of Education case that challenged segregation in public education. Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark Supreme Court case because it called into question the morality and legality of racial segregation in public schools, a long-standing tradition in the Jim Crow South, and threatened to have monumental and everlasting implications for blacks and whites in America. The Brown v. Board of Education case is often noted for initiating racial integration and launching the civil rights movement. In 1951, Oliver L. Brown, his wife Darlene, and eleven other African American parents filed a class-action lawsuit against the Board of Education
The Brown v. Board of Education Court Case served as a highlighted issue in black history. Brown v. Board help different races comes together in public schools. This case became very big 1950s lots of attention was drawn to the case at that time. News reporter and critics had different views and opinions about this case. This case in 1954 causes lots of issues and views towards the black race. The quote “separate but equal” is vital due to “Plessy v. Ferguson” and the famous lawyer Thurgood Marshall who argued this case, and the success of this case itself.
Brown V. Board of Education is commonly considered the most important case to date regarding education and civil rights. Education as we know it, would be completely different if The Supreme Court had not ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. I am confident that another case would have come along and changed it later had they not won this case. History would be completely different regarding the war on Civil Rights if things had gone differently. Until this case, many states implemented laws mandating separate schools for white and black students. This historical case made the previous laws established during the former Plessy V. Ferguson case unconstitutional.
During the 1950s, the United States was on the brink of eruption. Not literally, of course, but in a sense yes. Though it had been about a century after slavery was abolished, African Americans in the United States were still being treated as second-class citizens. Separate but equal, as outlined in the landmark case Plessy versus Ferguson of 1896, became a standard doctrine in the United States law. This was a defeat for many blacks because not only were the facilities were clearly unequal, but it restored white supremacy in the South. It would be years before any sense of hope would come from another prominent landmark case victory.
Overall, subjectivity is very important to this non-fiction article, it allows the reader to get a taste of what the museum may feel like, what emotions they may feel,
At first glance of the downstairs exhibition space, one can easily become very overwhelmed. The art appears extremely cluttered, with no easily deciphered pattern- it all seems random. Traditional black and white images flow
Apart from the two of us, there was just one other visitor in our two-hour stay. He was a Caucasian American, probably a graduate student or a faculty member, and he left almost as soon as we arrived. The kind of hush in the museum served as the reminder for the visitors to keep their voices low. The atmosphere generated by that silence did not encourage discussion among the viewers, but it helped provoked the thoughts and feelings in individual mind.