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Plessy Vs Ferguson

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Throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century, American statutes and judicial precedents operated to preserve advantages of the white citizens of the country. In 1954 the Supreme Court, made a profound decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which brought about a fundamental change in the legal and racial organization of American society. Mr. Oliver L. Brown’s attorneys convinced the justices to overturn the precedent in Plessy v. Ferguson, in order to permit Mr. Brown’s daughter Linda to attend a white elementary school that was seven blocks from her home instead of going ten blocks to get on a bus to go to a segregated elementary school. This unanimous decision swept aside the legal principle of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) …show more content…

The purpose of the Amendment's "Equal Protection Clause" was to preserve legal rights to African Americans which had often been stripped by state legislation. However, by the early 1900’s, the application of the Amendment had been limited and it was common practice to ignore the Equal Protection clause. For at that time the majority of white people in the within the United States supported “segregation for political, social, or economic reasons.” At that time the worst of the racial segregationists “not only maintained their malicious personal attitudes toward Negros, but also insisted that other white people publicly demonstrate a similar attitude.” Despite these attitudes, steps toward racial equality did occur, particularly after the Second World War, a conflict in which segregated Black units fought with distinction. The most surprising step following the War was that of President Truman, …show more content…

Hill asserts that if it had not been for Barbara Johns, there would have been little adult or public attention to the faults of segregation in public schools. Johns was one of the leaders in the only student led case consolidated into Brown. According to Hill on April 23, 1951 “Barbara Johns, a senior at Robert Mission High School in Prince Edward County, Virginia, led her class on strike to procure better school facilities and publicize the deplorable conditions of Prince Edwards Negro public schools." Johns was well positioned to organize her schoolmates, as she was the niece of Reverend Vernon Johns, a minister, civil rights activist, and orator. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had just opened a branch in Topeka, Kansas. The actions of the Board of Education in Coffeyville, Kansas and its new head of department, noted (NAACP) segregationist Kenneth McFarland, attracted the attention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored

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