The Desegregation of Public Schools

A landmark court case that occurred in the early 1950"s resulted in the desegregation of public schools. This historic Supreme Court case was known as Brown vs. Board of Education. The place was Topeka, Kansas, 1951. A little girl named Linda Brown and her father, Oliver Brown, attempted to enroll Linda in a neighborhood elementary school that accepted whites only. The request was denied, by the White elementary school. The little girl only lived a few blocks from the White elementary school, which would have been a good fit for her. Instead, she ended up traveling about a mile each day to attend the nearest Black school.

Mr. Brown decided to request the help of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP was glad to help in the fight. Mr. Brown and the NAACP moved forward and challenged the segregation law. In 1892, the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision had set a precedent for the issue of "separate but equal," which had been applied to school in the Southern states since then. Parents in other states were also pursuing the challenge to the "separate but equal" doctrine in South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. Mr. Brown"s case was heard by the U. S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

The request by Mr. Brown was to prohibit segregation of the public schools in Topeka. The NAACP argued to the court that separating Black children from White children was sending a wrong type of message to the Black children. The message being sent was that Black children were somehow inferior to Whites and that there was no way that the education being provided could be equal. On the other hand, the Board of Education argued that segregation was a fact of life in the states where these children attended school, and that segregated schools helped prepare the children for the reality of what their adult lives would be like (Robinson 2005).

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The Board of education went on to cite different successful educated American, none of whom attended integrated schools, such as Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, and Booker T. Washington. In handing down their decision, the judges in this case wrote that "colored children... " suffered a "detrimental effect" from segregation of the schools (Robinson 2005). However, they believed that the legal precedent set by the Plessy vs. Ferguson case prevented them from issuing the requested injunction and the result was that they ruled in favor of the Topeka Board of Education.

Mr. Brown and the NAACP appealed the case and it went to the United States Supreme Court in the latter part of 1951. The case was combined with the Delaware, Virginia, and South Carolina cases. The Supreme Court handled this case very delicately and deliberated for quite sometime. The case was first heard by the Supreme Court, but a decision was not made at that time. Various interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment were discussed and whether the Plessy vs. Ferguson case had violated it. The case was heard again by the Supreme Court in December of 1953.

Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African American Supreme Court Justice, gladly argued for Brown and the NAACP. Finally, a decision was made. On May 17, 1954, the U. S. Supreme Court issued the following decision: "... Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal education opportunities? We believe that it does... We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place... (Brown vs.

Board 1954). The Supreme Court tasked the nation with implementing this historic decision with deliberate speed. Recognizing the value of education, the court ruled unanimously in favor of equity. The Supreme Court declared that education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. It prepares our children for later professional training and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. The court also declared that it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.

But the vagueness of the phrase combined with continued bigotry slowed the process, in some cases to a standstill. With the segregation of public schools declared unconstitutional, segregationists across the South sprang into action to prevent the implementation of public school integration. Some states began to pass state laws to uphold segregation, which then had to be challenged in court by the federal government, one by one, delaying black children from attending White schools. Councils began to be developed, by segregationists, to fight against desegregation.

One of the most dramatic occurred in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, when White mobs screamed threats at nine Black high school students and blocked them, as they tried to go into their new school for the first time. The Black students were unsuccessful, unfortunately. The president at the time was President Eisenhower, of whom ended up calling in the National Guard to protect them so they could enter the school. President Eisenhower had to call in the National Guard to escort black children to an Arkansas school that refused to integrate.

Other communities used different tactics to resist. In Virginia, schools closed rather than desegregate. Elsewhere, some white families migrated to suburbs. Some black parents kept their children in the same black schools to avoid conflict. Families who chose white schools under freedom of choice plans, allowing black children attend any school in a district, received threats. In at least one instance, a cross was burned outside the home of a family. Across the nation, the 1954 Supreme Court decision brought forth dreams of heightened hope and yet resistance, as well.

According to Benjamin Mays, the backbone of segregation had been broken. Martin Luther King expressed that the decision was a joyous day-break after a long desolate midnight (Moss 2004, 63). In conclusion, school desegregation was not an issue that was resolved overnight; rather, it was the persistence of those against segregation and the realization of the unequality that it was enduring upon our children that pushed the historic decision that will never be forgotten.

Fifty years after the decision was made, it stands to reason that generations of U. S. students have benefited from its relief. The ruling spawned other protectionist laws, Title IX, for example, which specifically extends Brown's principles to gender, that prohibit noncompliant institutions from receiving federal funds, and it cleared the educational paths of millions of minority students. Yet today, people's impressions of the impact of the decision vary as widely as their personal experiences.

Baby boomers recall a time of expanded opportunity and change, while younger generations, nowadays, feel that the current classroom compositions are what they are, with the law behind them, the issue simply fills the pages in their history books. Although the Brown case directly addressed racial discrimination in public schools, the case has had great significance for women, as well. The Brown vs. Board of education decision was the legal decision necessary to stop segregation in its tracks. By the time the decision was handed down by the Supreme Court, Linda Brown had already moved on to attend middle school.

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