Brown v. Board of Education

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Slowly Turning Back the Hands of Time “We conclude unanimously that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” (qtd. in Irons 163). Many African-Americans waited to hear this quote from Chief Justice Earl Warren after many years of fighting for better educational opportunities by means of school desegregation. African-Americans went through much anguish before the Brown v. Board of Education trial even took place, especially in the Deep South. Little did they know that what looked like the beginning of the end was just another battle in what seemed like an endless war. Brown v. Board of Education was an important battle won during the Civil Rights Movement; however, it did have a major drawback simply because no deadline existed, an issue that author James Baldwin grasped from the moment the decision was made. The South took full advantage of this major flaw and continued to keep its segregated schools with no intention of ever integrating. In order to understand the magnitude of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, one must understand the hardships that African-Americans had to endure. For example, the case of Davis Knight “illuminate[d] racially mixed communities [,] delineate[d] the legal and social responses to attempts at racial desegregation and black enfranchisement during the era of the New Deal and World War II” in 1948 (Bynum 248). Davis Knight was a 23 year old man from Mississippi who appeared to be a “white,” but indeed was a “black man, who later married a white woman by the name of Junie Lee Spradley” (247). The case was presented to the Jones County Circuit Court where Knigh... ... middle of paper ... ...ssays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 209-214. ---. “Take Me to the Water.” 1960. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 353-403. Bynum, Victoria E. “”White Negroes” in Segregated Mississipi: Miscegenation, Racial Identity, and the Law.” The Journal of Southern History 64.2 (1998) 247-276. Harlan, Louis R. “The Southern Education Board and the Race Issue in the Public.” The Journal of Southern History 23.2 (1957): 189-202. Hope II, John. “Trends in Pattern of Race Relations in the South Since May 17, 1954.” Phylon 17.2 (1956): 103-118. Irons, Peter. Jim Crow’s Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision. New York: Viking Penguin, 2002. Reid, Herbert O. “The Supreme Court Decision and Interpretation.” The Journal of Negro Education 25.2 (1956): 109-117.

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