Even though most people only know of the famous Brown v. Board of Education case, many other cases also took a major part in overturning the harsh laws that African Americans faced for a long period of time in this country. Brown v. Board of Education was the most important Supreme Court decision of the 20th century (National Park). Without this case, the education system and other segregated facilities might not have ever changed through the course of history (Kirk). Not only was this one person fighting the Board of Education, but it consisted of multiple cases put together to take to the Supreme Court. This shows that lots of people had the same feeling towards the subject at hand. These various cases and the people involved in each provided a change for the future of segregation, especially in the South (McBride). Brown v. Board of Education was a major part in changing the education system for the better. Cases leading up to the court case in 1954 showed that even though change was coming slowly, things would be right soon.
At first, the court case Plessy v. Ferguson established the “separate but equal” policy (Kirk). This controversial case involved Homer Plessy, who was arrested and jailed for sitting in the “white” car on an East Louisiana Railroad. However, in 1896, he brought his situation to court where Justice Henry Brown wrote:
" ... The object of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either."
The court later on decided tha...
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Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Reseach. National Park Service. 14 April 2014. 21 April 2014 .
Educational Broadcasting Corporation. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Laws. 2002. PBS. 30 April 2014 .
Kirk, John A. History Today. September 2007. 16 April 2014 .
McBride, Alex. Expanding Civil Rights. December 2006. 30 April 2014 .
O'Brien, Anne. After Brown v. Board of Education. 25 May 2012. 26 April 2014 .
Supreme Court of the United States. 2009. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. 21 April 2014 .
Despite the ruling of the Supreme court for the states to desegregate their schools, there was some resistance to the ruling. This prompted the Supreme court to make another ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (2) (n.d.). The ruling, in this case, ordered states to immediately comply with the ruling in Brown I.
Last summer, my then twelve year old son was asked to participate in the National Junior Leaders Conference in Washington, DC. So, I packed our stuff and we headed for our nation's capital. While there, we visited the Supreme Court and my son, never having been there before, was simply awed. A short time later, we went to the Library of Congress. At the time (I don't know whether or not it's still there), there was a display -- three or four rooms big dedicated to the Supreme Court case Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. While the case was something that Nicholas (my son) and I had talked about on a few occasions, it was interesting to watch him as he navigated through the rooms that had photographs, court documents, newspaper articles, and other memorabilia of the case and the people involved with it. About thirty minutes into our time there, he started to cry softly, but he continued making his way through the display. He went to every single display in those several rooms; he didn't want to leave until he had seen everything and read everything. When we finally left (almost four hours after we arrived), he said to me, "It's disgraceful the way our country treated black people; there was no honor in any of it."
“The Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision holds up fairly well, however, as a catalyst and starting point for wholesale shifts in perspective” (Branch). This angered blacks, and was a call to action for equality, and desegregation. The court decision caused major uproar, and gave the African American community a boost because segregation in schools was now
Does the name Jim Crow ring a bell? Neither singer nor actor, but actually the name for the Separate but Equal (Jim Crow) Laws of the 1900s. Separate but Equal Laws stated that businesses and public places had to have separate, but equal, facilities for minorities and Caucasian people. Unfortunately, they usually had different levels of maintenance or quality. Lasting hatred from the civil war, and anger towards minorities because they took jobs in the north probably set the foundation for these laws, but it has become difficult to prove. In this essay, I will explain how the Separate but Equal Laws of twentieth century America crippled minorities of that time period forever.
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 circumstances were clearly not separate but equal. Brown v. Board of Education brought this out, this case was the reason that blacks and whites no longer have separate restrooms and water fountains, this was the case that truly destroyed the saying separate but equal, Brown vs. Board of education truly made everyone equal.
Before the decision of Brown v. Board of Education, many people accepted school segregation and, in most of the southern states, required segregation. Schools during this time were supposed to uphold the “separate but equal” standard set during the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson; however, most, if not all, of the “black” schools were not comparable to the “white” schools. The resources the “white” schools had available definitely exceed the resources given to “black” schools not only in quantity, but also in quality. Brown v. Board of Education was not the first case that assaulted the public school segregation in the south. The title of the case was shortened from Oliver Brown ET. Al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The official titled included reference to the other twelve cases that were started in the early 1950’s that came from South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The case carried Oliver Brown’s name because he was the only male parent fighting for integration. The case of Brown v. Board o...
In Topeka, Kansas, the school for African-American children appeared to be equal to that of the white school. However, the school was overcr...
Harlan, Louis R. “The Southern Education Board and the Race Issue in the Public.” The Journal of Southern History 23.2 (1957): 189-202.
Plessy vs Ferguson was a case in which it stated a precedent. In 1892, an African American named Homer Plessy did not give up his seat to a white man("HISTORY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION"). He then got arrested and taken to jail. Plessy than went to the Supreme Court to argue that his Fourteenth Amendment was violated. However, the Supreme Court ruled against Plessy and set the precedent that “separate but equal” is really equal("HISTORY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION") .
The National Center For Public Research. “Brown v Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (USSC+).” Supreme Court of The United States. 1982 .
Brown vs. The Board of Education changed the American education system, and made it possible for everyone to get the same education. This case made it possible for white student and colored students to share a classroom experience. This was also the beginning of every student beginning given equal opportunities no matter what color they were.
... Brown v. Board of Education. n.d. 8 May 2014 http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm>. History:
“Separate but equal” facilities should be unconstitutional because it violated the 13th and 14th Amendment and everyone was created equally, so no race should be separated from another race. In my opinion, Homer Plessy never violated any law or did anything that was wrong as well as how “separate but equal” facilities were unconstitutional. Harlan once said, “Everyone knows that the statues in question had its origin in the purpose, not so much to exclude white persons from railroad cars occupied by blacks, as to exclude colored people from coaches occupied by or assigned to white persons. “
Langston Hughes wrote a poem, in 1951, called “Harlem”. It sums up the play A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore- and the run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?” Lorraine Hansberry uses this poem to open A Raisin in the Sun. This dialogue suggests what happens to the African American’s dream during the Brown v. Board of Education trials. While critiquing this play I was a little disappointed that Brown v. Board of Education was not discussed directly. However, I did find the plot of the play, and the people who were attending it to be very interesting.
Unger, Harlow G. "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas." Encyclopedia of American Education, 3rd Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. African-American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.