Is Education the Great Equalizer?

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.

On May 17, 1954, in the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education, the High Court, for the first time in American legal history, challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine previously established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and outlawed racial segregation in public schools. The decision, igniting fierce debates throughout the country, was met with violence and strong defiance in the South. The years after Brown, however, saw the passing of several important Acts: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Today, Americans remember Brown v. Board of Education as a success in African Americans’ struggle for equal rights, a change of sea tide for the civil rights movement. While

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

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 Brown v. Board of Education of 1954 is known for desegregating public schools in the U.S. In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled “in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal had no place” (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954). It was the 1st major educational policy. The Court’s decision in Brown created not just desegregation strategies, but also instructional approaches such as Title I programs, magnet schools, and bilingual and multicultural education (Contreras & Valverde, 1994).

The Brown vs Board of Education as a major turning point in African American. Brown vs Board of Education was arguably the most important cases that impacted the African Americans and the white society because it brought a whole new perspective on whether “separate but equal” was really equal. The Brown vs Board of Education was made up of five different cases regarding school segregation. “While the facts of each case are different, the main issue in each was the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools ("HISTORY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION") .”

Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) was a landmark Supreme Court Case that overturned the separate but equal ideology established by the earlier Supreme Court Case Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). The Plessy vs. Ferguson court case had a profound affect on the social interaction of racial groups in the late 19th to early 20th century causing tension between the two most prominent races within the United States, the Caucasians and the African Americans, which included Hispanics and other non-white citizens. The Supreme Court Case Brown vs. Board of Education eradicated legal racial discrimination given to the state government by the implementation of Jim Crow Law in schools and public settings leading to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement which fought to put an end to the white supremacy and give all people especially those of color equal rights and protection under a court of law and in the eyes of government.

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

Most African Americans have faced many injustices, but one court case that can be considered as a major win is Brown versus Board of Education (1965). The case was about how a girl named Linda Brown not being allowed to attend an all-white elementary school. The jurors debated on the fourteen amendment and on the term “separate but equal” (“Brown v. Board of Education”). After many discussions and debate later, court case decision not only gave justice to the little girl, but also to the case regarding Jim Crow like Plessy versus Ferguson that faced injustice of the “separate but equal” which in 1965, “the Supreme Court produced a unanimous decision to overturn Plessy vs. Ferguson” (“Separate Is Not Equal - Brown v. Board of Education”). The case of Brown versus the Board of education was one of the most significant cases because this case was the stepping stone to the justices of previous cases that were ruled against for the fourteen amendment for many minorities. This case shows that peoples’ view point are slowly changing even when discrimination is prevalent; this was not the first time minorities wanted justice for their kids to attend diverse

Topeka, Kansas, 1950, a young African-American girl named Linda Brown had to walk a mile to get to her school, crossing a railroad switchyard. She lived seven blocks from an all white school. Linda’s father, Oliver, tried to enroll her into the all white school. The school denied her because of the color of her skin. Segregation was widespread throughout our nation. Blacks believed that the “separate but equal” saying was false. They felt that whites had more educational opportunities. Mr. Brown, along with the NAACP and many civic leaders, fought for equal educational rights for all races. Brown v. The Board of Education case and the events leading up to it had a positive effect on education and society.

“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.

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

By the 19th century, many social forms of discrimination existed to keep Black Americans from being equal to White Americans. Laws like separate but equal where put into places to keep Black Americans from being in the same places as White Americans, like; neighborhoods, schools, churches, restaurants, and so on. White Americans also believed that Blacks should not have the right to vote; which led to many black movements for the continuous fight for equality in the nation of freedom. By 1954 the Brown vs. Board of Education case reversed the “separate but equal” doctrine that previously had been set in 1896, allowing children both White and Black children to attend the same schools and same classrooms. In

Education was one of things that every parent wanted for their children regardless of whatever situation they were in. Public schools were segregated. In 1954 there was a lawsuit that ended legal segregation in public schools known as Brown V. Board of Education. In the fall of 1950, the NAACP sued on behalf of third-grader Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas (Gates, 2013, p.323). Brown’s parents lived near a white school and wanted their daughter to attend that school because it was closer to their home than any other school that was around them. Thurgood Marshall was one of the lawyers for the NAACP during the time and argued that segregation condemns children, thinking that they lower than the whites that the Court had supposedly threw out in the Plessy case. The Court also heard from other families that were going through the same situation as Brown. May 17th, 1954, the Court ruled in favor of the black students. This decision allowed blacks to attend any public school that they

This inequality and unnecessary act called racism within many school systems can be dated back to 1896 to the Plessy V. Ferguson case which resulted in “separate facilities for education” and an “equal education” (Campbell). This case is what provided us with the term “separate but equal”, this meant that white and black children had to attend separate schools but would supposedly get an equal education. Another case addressing racism in education is the Cumming V. Richmond case in 1899. This case involved three black families who petitioned the court to allow their children to finish their high school education at a white high school, due to the closing of the local black high school which would integrate African Americans and whites under one facility (Campbell). Racial segregation and its unfairness even continued into the 1950’s with the Sweatt V. Painter case involving an African American, Homas Sweatt, who was being denied access to the University of Texas Law School because he was black (Campbell). All of this unfair treatment of separate but equal education continued until 1954 when one of the most popular and familiar cases to all of us occurred, “Brown V. Board of Education”. In this case a young girl from Kansas had to walk 21 blocks to the closet black only school when a