What Is The Case Of Brown V. Board Of Education Of Topeka, Kansas, 1954

How would you feel if you were shamed over things you couldn’t control? Based on only prejudice and stereotypes, some people hate others. Internalized intolerance can exist in everyone, mentally and legally. Court cases and trials can distinctly show this. To Kill A Mockingbird focuses around an unfair trial of

The five reports of school segregation separately went to local courts with no avail. The cases then appealed to the Supreme Court, where they were pooled under the title “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas”. (Good, 31, 32) (Davidson et al. 850)

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark case that was decided by the Supreme Court of America in 1954. It is a case that is believed to have brought to an end decades of increasing racial segregation that was experienced in America’s public schools. The landmark decision of this case was resolved from six separate cases that originated from four states. The Supreme Court is believed to have preferred rearguments in the case because of its preference for presentation of briefs. The briefs were to be heard from both sides of the case, with the focus being on five fundamental questions. The questions focused on the attorneys’ opinions about whether Congress viewed segregation in public schools when it ratified the 14th amendment (Benoit, 2013). Changes were then made to the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

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.

Because of a brave young girl and her father being bold enough to stand up for their rights by trying to apply the 14th Amendment this was all possible. “Linda Brown was born on February 20, 1942, in Topeka, Kansas. Because she was forced to travel a significant distance to elementary school due to racial segregation, her father was one of the plaintiffs in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, with the Supreme Court ruling in 1954 that school segregation was unlawful”("Linda Brown Biography," ). She was 8 years old at the time when all of this happened. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) worked along side with her and her father to seek justice for this case. People of color’s thoughts and feeling

In 1951 schools were separated by skin color, or segregated. The Brown v. Board of Education trial was brought to court because a third-grader, Linda Brown, was not allowed to attend the elementary school that was closest to her house. She wa required to take the bus to school across town instead. In the trial the point that “Education for Negroes is almost nonexistent(13).” This is an example of how there were old problems in the Fourteenth Amendment that needed to be changed. Another issue that was brought up in the trial was that, “Segregation… has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children…(19).” Without the proper education at segregated

"'The Supreme Court decision [on Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas] is the greatest victory for the Negro people since the Emancipation Proclamation,' Harlem's Amsterdam News exclaimed. ‘It will alleviate troubles in many other fields.' The Chicago Defender added, ‘this means the beginning of the end of the dual society in American life and the system…of segregation which supports it.'"

Brown v. Board of Education On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court passed the case known as The Brown v. Board Education of Topeka, Kansas. The courts decision reversed the provisions of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which allowed for “separate but equal” facilities, including public schools. The school system of Topeka, Kansas, operated separate schools for blacks and whites. Reverend Oliver Browns, father of eight-year-old Linda Browns had charged the board of education of Topeka, Kansas, with violating Linda’s rights by denying her admission to an all white school near her house. The nearest all-black school was 21 blocks away. Chief Justice Earl Warren decided that separated educational facilities were inherently unconstitutional.

On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision was read: “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.” The Supreme Court diminished the idea of ‘separate but equal’ and showed it had no place public education.

Before the decision of Brown v. Board of 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 Supreme Court’s ruling did not take into account the majority opinion in Plessy versus Ferguson. Had it done so, the outcome would have been quite different. In the case of Plessy versus Ferguson, it was clear that there was some bias. Not only did it restore white supremacy but it violated the Fourteenth Amendment as well. This is because black facilities were undoubtedly unequal to those of the whites for that the white facilities were made with more quality, to say the least. Many whites were elated when the separate but equal facilities’ ruling was put into effect. For them, it was another moment to prove that the blacks were inferior. Though Kansas is not a southern state, members of the Supreme Court knew that many racists were going to be upset had the plaintiffs won. However, they did not let that hinder the outcome of the case. Because they knew what was right is right and what is wrong is wrong, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. The opinion was that, “Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment…” They go on to say, “Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race… deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.” They go on to explain that to separate others solely because of race places a sense of

Reasoning of the Court The court reasoned that separate but equal was an improper measure because it only factored physical factors. Even if the buildings and staff and books were the same, there are effects on nonphysical elements to consider. Children are unable to learn effectively because they are unable to share their ideas with equal minded peers. Segregation implies black inferiority which negatively impacts the development and self-esteem of black schoolchildren.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice Earl Warren argued that the question of whether racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and thus beyond the scope of the separate but equal doctrine, could be answered only by considering “the effect of segregation itself on public education.” Citing the Supreme Court’s rulings in Sweat v. Painter (1950), and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education (1950), which recognized “intangible” inequalities between African American and all-white schools at the graduate

“ On May 17, 1954 the United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the landmark case of Brown V. Board of topeka, Kansas. The Court's Unanimous decision overturned provision of the 1896 Plessy V. Ferguson decision,which had allowed for “separate but equal” public facilities, including public Schools in the United States. Declaring that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” the Brown V. Board decision help break the back of State Dash sponsored segregation, and provided a spark to the American Civil Rights Movement.

Lisa Nguyen HAS 5050 Brown v. Board of Education Case 10/3/17 1. Describe the parties and facts. The parties were minors of Negro race who have been denied admission to schools attended by white children due to laws requiring or allowing segregation by race. This goes against the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 which addresses citizenship rights and equal protection. Lawsuits were filed in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and District of Columbia. In all the cases, but the Delaware case, the Plessy V. Fergson, 163 U.S. 537 doctrine provided equal treatment, but in segregated facilities. In the Delaware case, the Supreme Court of Delaware allowed the plaintiffs to attend white schools because of their superiority to the Negro schools. The plaintiffs were still unsatisfied with this doctrine, as they felt segregated public schools is not considered equal and they were not granted the equal protection law.