Kansas Case Study Of African American Education

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.

FACTS: Linda Brown, an African American third grader applied for admission to an all-white public school, Sumner Elementary, in Topeka, Kansas and was refused by the board of education of Topeka. A class action lawsuit, represented by NAACP lawyers, was filed in 1951 in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. This case consolidated the four other cases filed in separate states, all having in common African American children denied admission to segregated, all-white public schools based on race.

Board of Education, resulted in the overturning of the “separate, but equal” doctrine under the realization that separation is what took away the equality. In the early 1950s, schools in Topeka, Kansas segregated people by race, leaving Linda Brown and her sister to walk through a hazardous railroad switchyard to get to the bus stop for their school. There was a school closer to where they lived, however, it was an all white school. Linda and her family saw the segregation systems as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and took it to court. Federal district courts claimed the segregation was harmful to African American youths, however due to the similar qualities the all-black and all-white schools shared, it was deemed fully constitutional under the “separate, but equal” doctrine. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and the court expressed that even though the schools shared similar facilities, segregated schools could never be equal. As such, the “separate, but equal” doctrine was overruled as it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision resulted in the precedent that any laws that segregated people, no matter how similar their facilities may be, was unconstitutional.(Paraphrased from www.streetlaw.org)

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)

The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas heard Brown's case from June 25-26, 1951. At the trial, the NAACP argued that segregated schools sent the message to black children that they were inferior to whites; therefore, the schools were inherently unequal. One of the expert witnesses, Dr. Hugh W. Speer, testified that "...if the colored children are denied the experience in school of associating with white children, who represent 90 percent of our national society in which these colored children must live, then the colored child's curriculum is being greatly curtailed. The Topeka curriculum or any school curriculum cannot be equal under segregation." (Brown v. Board of Education about the case" [online]). The Board of Education's defense was this, because segregation in Topeka and

Oliver Brown had declared that Topeka 's racial segregation violated the Constitution 's Equal Protection Clause because the city 's black and white schools were not equal to each other and never could be due to the way things were. The federal district court dismissed his claim, ruling that the segregated public schools were "substantially" equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy case doctrine. Brown appealed to the Supreme Court, which made it more effective and then

On the other hand, the Board of Topeka was arguing that the segregated schools were equal in every way and that it went in line with the Plessy standard (InfoPlease). They also argued that some of the programs of the African American school were better than the ones in the only white schools. Furthermore, the Board argued that discrimination did not harm any of the children

The Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education was trying to improve their school because many of the blacks were attending black schools. This was a de facto segregation because of the separation of the blacks and whites (Sewall and Witcher, 1998). The central issue of the case was that many of the blacks did not attend the white schools because it was hard for them to get themselves to these schools due to transit. Until a six-year-old boy, James, Swann, along with nine other families thought

The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case is a well-known case that went to the Incomparable Court for racial reasons with the leading body of training. The case was really the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Preeminent Court concerning the issue of isolation in state funded schools. These cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel Every case is distinctive; the principle issue in each was the lawfulness of state-supported isolation in government funded schools (Delinder, 2004).

The suit called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. Separate elementary schools were operated by the Topeka Board of Education under an 1879 Kansas law, which permitted (but did not require) districts to maintain separate elementary school facilities for black and white students in twelve communities with populations over 15,000. The plaintiffs had been recruited by the leadership of the Topeka NAACP. Notable among the Topeka NAACP leaders were the chairman McKinley Burnett; Charles Scott, one of three serving as legal counsel for the chapter; and

The basic issue in Brown vs. Board of Education was the beginning of integration in the school system. Trial transcripts, interviews, meet the browns, and segregated Topeka will be used to support evidence and opinions in this paper. Due to the decisions made in The Brown vs. Board of Education it changed who could attend with diversity in schools and continues to change schools to this day. After reading this paper, it should show that all people should be treated equally. Just because a person’s skin color was different than another person’s doesn’t mean they should have had to go to another school or be treated any differently.

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

Racial education of Topeka that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The case was decided on May 17, 1954. In many parts of the country, especially the South, there were separate public schools for African Americans and for whites. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously (9–0) that

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

"...if the colored children are denied the experience in school of associating with white children, who represent 90 percent of our national society in which these colored children must live, then the colored child's curriculum is being greatly curtailed. The Topeka curriculum or any school curriculum cannot be equal under segregation."