Preview

Brown V. Board of Education

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2777 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Brown V. Board of Education
Race & The Law

Final paper

Brown v Board of Education is a historical landmark case that dismantled segregation laws and established a great milestone in the movement toward true equality. The Supreme Courts unanimously decided on Brown v. Board of Education that "separate but equal is inherently unequal." Ruling that no state had the power to pass a law that deprived anyone from his or her 14th amendment rights. For my historical analysis I will use Richard Kluger’s “Simple Justice”, in which he argues, “that the Declaration of Independence was marred by hypocrisy—all men were not equal if black”. His book will assist me in learning the policies that lead to and surrounded this case. Using interviews I conducted, where I questioned inner city high school students of their schooling experience in comparison to my brother who attends a predominately white privileged private school, I will ultimately uncover the many inequalities that still exist today. While researching I interviewed my great-Aunt Bertha, who grew up in the state of Mississippi, she had a first-hand experience of life before Brown v Board of Education and life after the Supreme Court ruled on the case, her life was changed forever. My research will focus on not only a historical analysis of what occurred, but how far America has claimed to truly come in dealings with race relations, and the inequalities that still exist today.

The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States also known as the “Union” and the few southern states that announced their separation from the United States known as the “Confederates”. The war was based mainly on differing opinions on the issue of slavery. The war lasted about four years and the results yielded in the Confederacy being defeated by the Union. Upon defeating the Confederates, the Union abolished slavery. From that moment on the process of rebuilding the Union as a strong united nation began. This Union was to guarantee



Bibliography: Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America 's Struggle for Equality. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print. "Mississippi Schools Still Segregated Despite Court Order." Breaking News for Black America RSS. NewsOne Staff, 4 May 2011. Web. 18 Dec. 2012. Miller, J (2012, 5 October) Personal Interview Moore, B (2012 15, October) Telephone Interview -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. This was a progressive act which allowed for higher education of to be obtained for all citizens. It was intended to provide colleges for people, and was sponsored by a Senator in Vermont named Justin Morill. He was a Republican and established this act to fund for not only higher education but for public schools as well. [ 2 ]. See Richard Kulger “Simple Justice” page 18. Kulger does a historical review of what the Claredon County black children had to experience. Thurgood Marshall was an advocate for black rights and explaining what African Americans will demand of the Supreme Court in the battle for equal justice. [ 3 ]. Thurgood Marshall worked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was also a leading advocate for equality on levels. Not just in the workplace, but in schools. [ 4 ]. An online New article published in 2011, discusses how although segregation is over, many schools by choice are segregated.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    During the Fairclough’s article discussion, one of the key research materials that have rarely received scholarly attention pertains to the legal documents held in the NAACP archive. Fairclough asserted that “the NAACP legal offensive against separate and inferior education in 1935 and culminated in the 1954 Brown decision.” When analyzing the Sweatt v. Painter case study, it became evident that predominately all of the author’s under analysis acquired their information from NAACP historical records. Records utilized by scholars for research contained personal conversation, documents, letters, newspaper articles, and trial transcripts. In most articles studied, they restate the same information found in Michael L. Gillette’s…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The NAACP clearly played a major role in many of the successes of the civil rights campaign in this period. This is evident by their involvement in a series of legal cases regarding civil rights issues, such as their landmark legal case: Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka. This case ruled that segregated schools were, in fact, not ‘separate but equal’ and they did this by referencing the 14th and 15th Amendment in many of his arguments and showing that children at white-only schools in the south had nearly $38 spent on each one of them per year, while the equivalent at a black-only school only had $13 spent on them. Thurgood Marshall, Legal Counsel for the NAACP, also brought in educationalists, psychologists and other professionals, proving that segregated schools caused psychological damage to black students by making them feel inferior. They were responsible for the success as this set a precedent for the subsequent legal cases, and drove forward the campaign for civil rights by boosting morale. Another important case supported by the NAACP was the…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Case name and Citation: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; 1952; U.S. Supreme Court Parties: In this case, the plaintiffs are African American children however the representative plaintiff is Brown and the defendants are Board of Education of Topeka (Kansas). Statement of Facts: Different cases from the States of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware were presented to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding similar legal questions based on a common ideology of “separate but equal.” In each of these states minor aged African Americans request for the support of the courts to gain unsegregated entrance to their public school. In each individual case, the plaintiff had been denied acceptance to school in their community attended by the…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jonathan Kozol illustrates a grim reality about the unequal attention given to urban and suburban schools. The legendary Supreme Court case Brown v Board of Education ended segregation in public schools in America because the Court determined that “separate but equal is inherently unequal.” Over a half century after that landmark case, Kozol shows everyone involved in the education system that public schools are still separate and, therefore, still unequal. Suburban schools, which are primarily made up of white students, are given a far superior education than urban schools, which are primarily made up of Hispanics and African Americans. In “Still Separate and Still Unequal”, Kozol, through logos, pathos, and vivid imagery, effectively reveals to people that, even though the law prohibits discrimination in public schools, several American schools are still segregated and treated differently in reality.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Race Beat Summary

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Roberts and Klibanoff tell that story. The story of how White northerners learned better, how they learned of the ugly reality of the Southern system. They begin with the lead up and aftermath of the landmark Brown v. Board decision. Telling how, slowly, efforts to integrate southern school both garnered more support within the black South, more opposition from segregationist whites, and garnered more attention from outside observers.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the years of segregation after it was made that colored people were allowed to go to colleges and have an education Thurgood Marshall had gone to Howard University School of Law (magna cum laude) to work in the field of law and begins private practice in Baltimore. When Thurgood Marshall fought for equality he used previous cases he worked to defend his position that he could be the person to work cases for racial equality in the Supreme Court. Marshall used his words of experience to prove that he indeed had much experience even as a colored man. Thurgood Marshall inspires people by being brave and working his way to obtain his high position even though he wasn't privileged. Marshall also inspired people by showing them there was…

    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Johnson Kennedy’s successor appointed Marshall to serve as the first black U.S. solicitor general, with two years of being solicitor he won 14 out of the 19 cases he had. In 1967 President Johnson nominated Thurgood to serve on the bench by October he was moved up to be a Supreme Court justice, him becoming the first African American to serve on the nation's highest court. He later joined liberal Supreme Court by Chief Justice Earl Warren, who aligned with Thurgood’s viewing on politics and and Constitution. He consistently supported rulings keeping a strong protection on individual rights and the liberal interpretations of controversial social issues. Part of the majority that ruled in favor of the right to abortion in the 1973 case Roe V. Wade, 1972 case Furman V. Georgia that led to De Facto Moratorium on death penalty, Marshall gave his opinion on it by saying that it was unconstitutional in circumstances. Throughout his 24 years on the court republican presidents appointed eight consecutive justices, he gradually became an isolated liberal member of an increasingly conservative court. For the part time on the bench he largely relegated to issuing strongly worded dissents as the court had reinstated the death penalty, limited affirmative, and abortion…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial segregation has been an American tradition since the Constitution was ratified back in 1789; granting only white, property owning men as whole citizens. The cases of Plessy vs. Ferguson, an Brown vs. Board of Education have broken this tradition to send off a wave of additional cases during the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Brave men and women who fought against society have brought this issue into the light, granting them the ability to let equality revolutionize itself since slaves were freed.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Awareness of one’s history is critical to appreciating and understanding its affects and accomplishments. The Brown v. Board of Education case is landmark in the history of the United States society and the judiciary system (Hartung). It drastically affected the education systems, the civil rights movements, and is known as one of the first cases to acknowledge social science results. The Brown v. Board of Education case took place over sixty years ago, and its affects continue to influence many aspects of today’s society, and more specifically today’s education systems. Although the Brown case had many accomplishments, it is still argued that it failed to successfully accomplish its main goal of desegregating schools.…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.” Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland and died on January 24, 1993. His parents are Norma and William Marshall. He has one brother, William Marshall. Marshall studied at Frederick Douglass High School and was one of the top achievers in his class. Marshall grew up where Blacks weren’t getting the justice they deserved, so he joined the NAACP. Thurgood Marshall has not only gave blacks a right to education by ending racial segregation in public schools and was the first Black Supreme Court justice, he’s the most intelligent of civil rights movement…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In 1954 the Supreme Court justices made a ruling on what I believe to be one of the most important cases within American history, Brown v Board of Education. There were nine Justices serving in the case of Brown v Board of Education this was the court of 1953-1954. This court was formed Monday, October 5, 1953 and Disbanded Saturday, October 9, 1954. Chief Justice, Earl Warren, Associate Justices, Hugo L. Black, Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Robert H. Jackson, Harold Burton, Tom C. Clark, Sherman Minton all of which voted unanimously in favor of Brown in the case of Brown v Board of Education [as cited on http://www.oyez.org/courts/warren/war1]. Brown v Board of Education was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that brought to light the fact that racial segregation in the public schools system was both morally unsound and unconstitutional. The case was brought to the Supreme Court by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, more commonly known as the NAACP, on behalf of a young African American female named Linda Brown, a student who attended an extremely segregated all-black elementary school from a small town in Kansas called Topeka. The decision led to nationwide desegregation in educational and other institutions and gave impetus to the civil rights movement in America. Jim Crow laws kept the minorities (primarily African Americans) of this country in a very neglected and fearful state; this was the face of our country for decades.…

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Desegregation In 1954

    • 81 Words
    • 1 Page

    Historians pointed out that the fight for desegregation started quicker than most people think. Long before the Brown v Board of Education in 1954. The movement to oppose segregation didn’t just spring out one day after World War II racial injustice. Nor did it arrive in 1954 in the form of a Supreme Court decision. Lot’s of black American’s consistently challenged the laws much earlier. The growing movement in the 1950’s and 60’s extended from and connected to these earlier efforts.…

    • 81 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    English Summery Paper

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The article “Don’t Mourn Brown V. Board of Education” by Juan Williams discusses that it is now time for something greater in effect than what the Brown V. Board of Education can offer us today. Brown V. Board had a huge part in civil rights movement and got Americans to think about inequality in society and in education. Assimilating students does not insure that students that are black or Hispanics will not drop out high school nor does it guarantee the narrowing of performance levels. In fact schools have become more segregated while the nation has become more diverse. Schools continued to fail even with Brown V. Board of Education was enforced. The parents began to become dissatisfied with their children being pulled out of neighborhood schools and instead being bussed to different schools further away. The Supreme Court realized that using school children to address segregation in school was not going to fix segregation in society. Busing students began to be replaced with magnet school and charter schools and eventually the Supreme Court began to believe that the fourteenth amendment was better served by treating children as individuals rather than as tools to enforce segregation.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jim Crow

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was one of the most important decisions made by the US Supreme Court. This ruling on May 17, 1954 overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson. This court case ruled that the segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Van Woodward writes in this book “The court’s decision of 17 May was the momentous and far reaching for the century in civil rights. It reversed a constitutional trend started long before Plessy vs. Ferguson and it marked the beginning of the end of Jim Crowe” (Van Woodward, 147).…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The case of Brown vs. Board of Education, was one of the biggest turning points for African Americans to becoming accepted into the white society at the time. Brown vs board of education is one of the most important cases that african americans has brought upon the united states for the better. The case Brown vs. Board of Education wasn't just about the children and the education; it was about being equal in a society that says african and americans are treated equal, in fact they were definitely not. 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. It started in Topeka, Kansas, a african american third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her african american elementary school. Linda's father Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school seven blocks from her house, but the principal of the school refused simply because the child was african american. That didn't stop Oliver Brown from fighting for his daughters education. There were 13 other parents wanting their african american children enrolled to the white school. The parents filed suit against Topeka Board of Education for their children. Oliver Brown was the first name listed in the lawsuit. During the time of the lawsuits african americans were treated very unfairly. Oliver Brown had went to NAACP(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to fight to get Linda in the white school. The NAACP hired lawyers to fight for dark skin children all around the United States to be able to go to the same schools as white children. The 14 Amendment was violated by this case. It states that anyone colored or not born in the US is equal. The states referred this case as the Plessy vs. Ferguson which had allowed separate but equal school systems for whites and african americans…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays