Brown+V+Board




 * = **Using the the links provided, analyze the landmark Supreme Court case //Brown v. Board of Education//. Cut and paste the information below into a new entry on your Unit 8 Online Notebook.** ||  ||=   ||

**SETTING THE STAGE** - **[|Participate in The Road to Justice activity]**


 * BASIC FACTS OF THE CASES (more than one) (check video, [|Link 1], [|Link 2], [|Link 3])**


 * 1) **Basic Info:** The Supreme Court combined five cases under the heading of //Brown// v. Board of Education, because each sought the same legal remedy. The combined cases emanated from Delaware, Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, DC.
 * 2) **Actual Brown V Board**- The local NAACP assembled a group of 13 parents who agreed to be plaintiffs on behalf of their 20 children and attempted to enroll their children in segregated white schools and all were denied. In February of 1951 the Topeka NAACP filed a case on their behalf. Although this was a class action it was named for one of the plaintiffs Oliver Brown.
 * 3) **Belton V Gebhart-** In the rural community of Hockessin, African American students were forced to attend a dilapidated one-room school house and were not provided transportation to the school, while white children in the area were provided transportation and a better school facility. In both cases, Louis Redding, a local NAACP attorney, represented the plaintiffs, African American parents. Although the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the decision did not apply to all schools in Delaware
 * 4) **Briggs V Elliot- In Claredon County, the State NAACP first attempted, unsuccessfully and with a single plaintiff, to take legal action in 1947 against the inferior conditions African American students experienced under South Carolina’s racially segregated school system. Activist Rev. J.A. DeLaine, convinced African American parents to join the NAACP efforts to file a class action suit in U.S. District Court **
 * 5) **Davis V County School Board Of Prince Edward County-** One of the few public high schools available to African Americans in the state was Robert Moton High School in Prince Edward County. Built in 1943, it was never large enough to accommodate its student population. The gross inadequacies of these classrooms sparked a student strike in 1951. Organized by sixteen year old Barbara Johns, the students initially sought to acquire a new building with indoor plumbing. The NAACP soon joined their struggles. Although the U.S. District Court ordered that the plaintiffs be provided with equal school facilities, they were denied access to the white schools in their area.
 * 6) **Bolling V. C. Melvin Sharpe-** Eleven African American junior High School students were taken on a field trip to the cities new modern John Phillip Sousa school for whites only. Accompanied by local activist Gardner Bishop, who requested admittance for the students and was denied, the African American students were ordered to return to their grossly inadequate school. A suit was filed on their behalf in 1951. The Supreme Court ruled "segregation in the District of Columbia public schools…is a denial of the due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.


 * MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE PLAINTIFF (for integration) (check [|Link 1])**
 * Supreme Court had misinterpreted the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
 * Equal protection of the laws did not allow for racial segregation
 * 14th Amendment allowed the Gov. to prohibit any discriminatory state action based on race, including segregation in public schools
 * 14th Amendment did not specify whether the states would be allowed to establish segregated education
 * Psychological testing demonstrated the harmful effects of segregation on the minds of African American children


 * MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE DEFENDANTS (for segregation) (check [|Link 1])**

The Supreme Court decided to hear the Brown v. Board of Education Case in June of 1952. There were many arguments regarding this case. Many justices doubted the constitutional authority of the Court to end school segregation and they worried that a decision to integrate schools might be unenforceable. In September, 1953, Justice Fred Vinson died and President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as chief justice. His leadership in producing a unanimous decision to overturn //Plessy// changed the course of American history.
 * The Constitution didn’t require white and African American children to attend the same schools
 * Social separation of blacks and whites was a regional custom; the states should be left free to regulate their own social affairs
 * Segregation was not harmful to black people
 * Whites were making a good faith effort to equalize the two educational systems, but because black children were still living with the effects of slavery, it would take some time before they were able to compete with white children in the same classroom
 * THE CHANGE IN THE COURT (leading to a decision) (check** [|**Link 1**]**)**

Supreme Court ruled that Brown had won. The Supreme Court said that no one should be deprived the right to their education. This was unanimous. The African Americans were deprived of equal protection from the 14th Amendment and due process under the 5th Amendment. The Brown decision made segregation illegal.
 * THE COURT DECISION (in your own words) (check** [|**Link 1**] **and Link 2)**

**ENFORCING THE DECISION (discuss "with all deliberate speed) (Check [|Link 1] ** **) The Court ordered only that the states end segregation with “all deliberate speed," meaning that outlawing segregation is supposed to be fast but it wasn't. This gave segregationists the opportunity to organize resistance. Many white people thought that this was an assault on their way of life. Segregationists launched a militant campaign of defiance and resistance. **
 * THE IMPACT and LEGACY** **(Check** [|**Link 1**]**)**

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In the mid-1950s Americans remained deeply divided over the issue of racial equality. African Americans pressed to have the Brown decision enforced, and many people were unprepared for the intensity of resistance among white southerners. Likewise, defenders of the “southern way of life” underestimated the determination of their black neighbors. The African American freedom struggle soon spread across the country. The original battle for school desegregation became part of broader campaigns for social justice. Fifty years after the Brown decision, the movement has come to include racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, and other groups, each demanding equal opportunity.======