Brown v. Board of Education: Difference between revisions

'''''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka''''', [[Court citation|347 U.S. 483]] ([[1954]]) was a [[landmark case]] of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] which explicitly outlawed ''[[de jure]]'' [[racial segregation]] of [[public education]] facilities (legal establishment of separate government-run schools for blacks and whites), ruling so on the grounds that the doctrine of "[[separate but equal]]" public education could never truly provide black Americans with facilities of the same standards available to white Americans. A companion case dealt with the constitutionality of segregation in the [[District of Columbia]], (not a state and therefore not subject to the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]]), ''[[Bolling v. Sharpe]]'', {{ussc|347 U.S. |497 (1954)[[Court Citation|*]]1954}}.

For much of the 90 years preceding [[1954]], race relations in the United States had been dominated by segregation, a system of racial separation which, while in name providing for separate but equal treatment of both white and black Americans, in truth perpetuated inferior accommodationaccommodations, services, and treatment for black Americans.

''Brown'' is undoubtedly the most famous of a group of U.S. Supreme Court cases which principally deal with the struggle of black Americans to recover the rights of citizenship expressly given to them by the [[Constitution of the United States]]. The group also includes ''[[Powell v. Alabama]]'', {{ussc|287 U.S. |45 (|[[1932]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}, ''[[Chambers v. Florida]]'', {{ussc|309 U.S. |227| ([[1940]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}, ''[[Smith v. Allwright]]'', {{ussc|321 U.S. |649 (|[[1944]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}, ''[[Shelley v. Kraemer]]'', {{ussc|334 U.S. |1 (|[[1948]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}, ''[[Sweatt v. Painter]]'', {{ussc|339 U.S. |629 (|[[1950]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}, ''[[McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents]]'', {{ussc|339 U.S. |637 (|[[1950]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}, ''[[NAACP v. Alabama]]'', {{ussc|357 U.S. |449 (|[[1958]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}, ''[[Boynton v. Virginia]]'', {{ussc|364 U.S. |454 (|[[1960]])[[Court Citation|*]]}} and ''[[Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States]]'', {{ussc|379 U.S. |241 (|[[1964]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}.

In [[1951]], a suit was filed against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka in the [[United States district court|U.S. District Court]] for the District of [[Kansas]] on behalf of Linda Brown, a third grader from [[Topeka, Kansas]] who was forced to walk a mile to her segregated black school, while a white school was only seven blocks from her house. Brown's suit had the backing of the [[NAACP]], whose chief counsel, [[Thurgood Marshall]]--himself—who was later appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in [[1967]]--—argued the case. The District Court ruled in favor of the Board of Education, citing the U.S. Supreme Court precedent set in ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', {{ussc|163 U.S. |537 (|[[1896]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}, which allowedhad upheld a state lawslaw requiring "separate but equal" segregated facilities in railway cars for blacks and whites in railway cars.

The case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court. On [[May 17|17 May]] [[1954]] the [[Earl Warren|Warren]] Court handed down a unanimous 9-0 decision which stated, in no uncertain terms, that "Separateseparate educational facilities are inherently unequal.".

The 17 May 1954 decision reversed the Court's previous decision in ''[[Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education]]'', ([[1899]])[[Court Citation|*]], which had specifically validated the segregation of public schools. ''Brown'' did not, however, result in the immediate [[desegregation]] of America's public schools, nor did it mandate desegregation of other public facilitiesaccommodations, such as restaurants or bathrooms, that were owned by private parties, which would not be accomplished until the formal overturningpassage of ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson|Plessy]]'' by Title II of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. However, it was a giant step forwards for the [[USAmerican Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)|civil rights movement]], placing the weight of the Federal Judiciary squarely behind the forces of desegregation.

''Brown'' is often referred to as ''Brown'' I, because the following year, [[1955]], the Court completed its ruling. In this second ''Brown'' decision, "''Brown'' II," the Warren Court ordered the states' compliance with ''Brown'' I "with all deliberate speed." Even so, formal compliance with the provisions of these two cases was not expedited, and in [[U.S. Southern States|the South]] most public schools would not be desegregated until about [[1970]] under the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] administration. Nearly twenty years after ''Brown'' school desegregation would come to the court's attention again in two cases involving the use of [[forced busing|busing]] to [[racial integration|integrate]] students across school districts: ''[[Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education]]'', {{ussc|402 U.S. |1 (|[[1971]])[[Court Citation|*]] }} and ''[[Milliken v. Bradley]]'', {{ussc|418 U.S. |717 (|[[1974]])[[Court Citation|*]]}}.

Not everyone accepted the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In Virginia, Senator Harry F. Byrd declaredorganized the [[Massive Resistance]] movement that included the closing of schools rather than desegregating them. See, for example, [[The Southern Manifesto]]. For more implications of the Brown decision, see [[Desegregation]].

* [http://laws.findlaw.com/us/347/483.html Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com]

* [http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/exhibits/brown/resistance.htm Library of Virginia]