...Professor Course Date Brown vs. Board of Education The Brown vs. Board of Education case was a colossal influence on desegregation of schools in the United States of America. It created a milestone of equal opportunities in schools among the blacks and whites. The ruling of this case took place in 1954 and it ruled in favor of Mr. Brown. It is among one of the important cases ever heard on racial prejudice in the American history. The Brown vs. Board of Education case is about a young third grader girl in Kansas, Topeka city named Linda Brown (Dudley 48). Linda was subjected to trekking one mile through a railway switchyard daily in order to reach her black elementary school despite there being a white school seven blocks away from her home. Browns father attempted to find a chance in the white school to get her enrolled there since the black elementary school was far from home but the principal of the white school rejected Linda’s enrollment because she was black and the school was a white school. Mr. Brown and other parents reported the incident to the head of Topeka’s National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The head of NAACP Mr. McKinley Burnett had really waited for such an opportunity so as to challenge racial segregation problem in court as segregation cases were very rampant in the United States schools. This was the right opportunity as Mr. Burnett and NAACP took legal action by taking the case to the District court. Brown lost the case to the state...
Words: 1494 - Pages: 6
...Nicole Cummings POSU 343 Signature Assignment October 16, 2014 Brown vs. Board of Education The court case docketed Brown vs. Board of education was a culmination of several individuals seeking constitutional justice for their civil liberties. These brave individuals changed the course of history. This landmark case changed racial segregation in schools and allowed equal education to all regardless of race. Although the Declaration of Independence declared that all men were created equal, it wasn’t for many years after the ending of slavery that equal rights were strengthened and the effects of slavery were abolished. Amendments to the constitution were put into effect to equal out the balance of the laws due to racial segregation, but despite these amendments African-Americans were rarely given the equal treatment as their white counterparts. Many states, especially in the south, made segregation a legal practice. What became known as Jim Crow Laws, were regulations that enabled separate bathrooms, busses, and schools simply based on the color of their skin. Many people disagreed with these unjust laws, but only few made their opinion known in court. One of the first cases to be heard regarding unmerited segregation was brought to the Supreme Court by a gentleman by the name of Homer Plessy. Mr. Plessy refused to give up his seat on the train to a white man and was therefore arrested. He knew that this arrest violated the 14th amendments “equal protection clause”...
Words: 2475 - Pages: 10
...Brown v. Board of Education 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. The case started in Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. 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 black. Brown went...
Words: 1236 - Pages: 5
...BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA The Brown vs. Board of Education ruling was a colossal influence on desegregation of schools and a landmark in the movement for equal opportunity between the blacks and whites that continues to this day. The Brown vs. Board of Education case was not the first of its kind. Ever since the early 1950s, there were five separate cases that were filed, dealing with the desegregation of schools. In all but one of these cases, the schools for whites were of better quality than the schools for the blacks. The African-Americans argued that this situation was unjust and unconstitutional1. Education has been long regarded as a valuable asset for all of America's adolescence. However, when this benefit is deprived of to a specific group, measures must be taken to defend its educational right. In the 1950's, a courageous group of activists launched a legal attack on segregation in schools. The one who headed this attack was NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall. We find that his legal strategies would contribute wholly to the closure of educational segregation. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Congress passed the 14th amendment that stated that all people born in the United States are considered citizens. The 14th amendment also proclaims that individual states cannot make any laws to take away a person's right to life, liberty, or property. Segregation laws made it permissible to keep races distant as long as each race had its own access...
Words: 1328 - Pages: 6
...Introduction Brown versus Board of Education was a major turning point in the history of the United States. This major case was actually several cases that were decided by the Supreme Court as one. These cases were argued by the NAACP and their expert team of lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall and his team the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. All the cases were filed by African American parents on behalf of their children. The parents of these children wished it to be brought before the courts that “separate but equal” was not fair. In the South though, Plessy v. Ferguson, “separate but equal” and Jim Crow laws reigned, they had a tough battle ahead. Leading up to Brown v. Board of Education The Jim Crow Laws were enacted in mostly the Southern and some of the border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965, slightly less than a hundred years (wikipedia). These laws mandated "separate but equal" status for black Americans. “In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided to white Americans. The most important laws required that public schools, public places and public transportation, like trains and buses, have separate facilities for whites and blacks” (wikipedia). In the Progressive Era the restrictions were formalized, and segregation was extended to the federal government by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913 (wikipedia). To discuss the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education, a brief history...
Words: 2256 - Pages: 10
...Brown v. Board Of Education of Topeka is one of the most important court cases in the history of the United States. The case ultimately changed the face of our nation. The case which took place in in 1954 when the united states was a turmoil of hate and discrimination. Brown vs. Board of Education set a precedent of many cases that were to come. The decision overruled the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of “separate but equal”. Plessy v. Ferguson violated the equal protection clause of the 14th and 15th amendments which granted rights to black people, and the . Brown v. Board of Education not only overruled the decision but also set the standard of many civil rights cases to come. The case was a stepping stone to equal rights to all people of...
Words: 605 - Pages: 3
...The Brown Vs. Board of Education case started in the 1950's. Linda Brown was denied from a white school in Topeka, Kansas. Her father took the situation to court. He was appealed many times until finally he took it to the Supreme Court where nine justices ruled for him. This was only the beginning for the civil rights movement, because only Linda was allowed in the white school. Soon integration became a law for schools, but not for other workplaces, restaurants, or buses. If it weren't for Brown Vs. Board of Education, not many would have been inspired. After the case, nine African American children in Little Rock, Arkansas attempted to walk into school. Governor Orval Faubus had guards stand out to block their way. President Eisenhower...
Words: 336 - Pages: 2
...Writing Out of all the landmark cases that was studied, Brown vs. Board of Education was the most instrumental in molding our society today. If the Brown vs. BOE case didn’t happen students wouldn’t be where they are right now. The Brown vs BOE case allowed mixed schools, it allowed colored children to go to school with white children. Most didn’t agree with the Supreme Court's decision, which led to desegregation programs such as the METCO program in Lincoln. Throughout the years the school systems changed their ways but, went into another direction, students were re-segregated in schools. Education is important for everyone, it allows people to have better lives and better careers. The supreme court passed a law that started, all American citizens are separate but also equal. African Americans of Prince Edward County we’re segregated. In the Brown...
Words: 736 - Pages: 3
...Have you ever heard of the Brown versus Board of Education case? The Brown versus Board of Education case is one of the many influential events in history that helped end segregation in America. The Brown versus Board of Education case got started in a little town in Topeka, Kansas in 1951 because of black students not being allowed to enroll in a white school. Brown versus The Board of Education was one of the five cases that the NAACP picked out to help fight for segregation in schools to come to an end. The case was fought first against the Topeka,Kansas school board with the sole purpose of ending segregation in the local schools. It was represented by Oliver Brown,a parent of one of the black students not allowed into white schools,who argued to the school board “Topeka’s racial segregation violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause because the city’s black and white schools were not equal to each other and never could be.” Oliver Brown thought he had brought a strong case to the Topeka, Kansas school board, but they dismissed his claim by saying “Segregated public schools are substantially equal enough...
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
...Topeka Board of Education occurred in 1954 in Topeka, Kansas. While this case had more of a social impact, it still is a landmark Supreme Court case because the a court once again stretched its legal reach to encompass another aspect of American government. To introduce this case, you must know that after the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the Consitution freed African Americans from slavery, gave them the rights of any other U.S. citizen, and gave them the right to vote. However, the extent of these amendments were hotly debated, and a previous court ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson ruled that African Americans could have separate public facilities like bathrooms and schools as long as they were equal. This interpretation, now known as segregation, was unconstitutional, however, because the facilities were rarely if ever equal. So in 1953 the parents of a little black girl in Topeka, Arkansas took their case to the Supreme Court to argue for her admission into a white school. The Supreme Court had to deliberate on the...
Words: 975 - Pages: 4
...It has been more than 64 years since the Brown vs Board of Education case ruled separate schools based on race unconstitutional and we have yet to fix the fundamental problem that this case brought to the limelight, inequality. It runs rampant in the United States and it's not just in the south. Causes of inequality in education range from poor government policies to a capitalistic nature of society to poor management of education systems. And even if there is an equal opportunity for education, the quality of education that children receive are outrageously bad as it does not prepare them for the future. So Americans on top of the many major issues that they are facing will not only have to worry about inequality but also about the quality...
Words: 1150 - Pages: 5
...factor in cases that involved racism. Though it sometimes limited rights, the Equal Protection clause eventually became a key element to justice. Lum vs. Rice (1927) was a Supreme Court case where the Mississippi education board did not allow a nine year old girl to attend the all-white Rosedale Consolidated School because of her ethnicity. Gong Lum’s daughter, Martha Lum, was Chinese and a native-born in the United States. One day, a superintendent at Rosedale told Martha to leave school because she was not Caucasian. Gong Lum later filed for suit and the state trial court was in his favor. The state took the issue to officials to readmit Martha Lum, however, the Supreme Court opposed the state’s decision. The Supreme Court supported their argument from the Cumming vs. Richmond County Board of Education case (1899) where it showed that schools are allowed to be separated for white and “colored” students. They also focused on whether or not Martha Lum was being denied of her equal protection of the laws from the 14th Amendment. This brought the Supreme Court to uphold the Plessy vs. Ferguson case (1896) by approaching the concept “separate but equal.” They declared that Martha Lum was not white and the Board of Trustees was allowed to exclude her from Rosedale. In 1954, the Brown family went against the Board of Education because they believed segregated schools can never be equal despite their similar...
Words: 794 - Pages: 4
...monroe55 English 11B 5/14/2015 Brown vs. Board of Education Influence Civil War Not many years ago, children of all ages and different race were permitted from going to the same school together along with many other places in to United States. Districts were able to legally separate students by the color of there skin. According to the law as of now had being set into place, they said these schools had to be equal. However, back then majority of schools for the black race were looked at as “nothing” or have “lesser value” than schools with white students. In addition, what were some effects on people of color and factors that were lead to bring down segregation? Meanwhile as many historical events were passing by such as past Slavery and Wars ending. Many people question the fact of why African Americans freedom was not fully set free. The freedom was set from slavery but much more was only waiting for them. This being called segregation, from having to sit separate on the bus, drink from different water fountains that where not only labeled for “Blacks and Whites”. These things were so crucial for people of color to deal with. It was like they over came something big only to be thrown another big people against them only because of there skin tone. Setting forth more ideas of the segregation among blacks and whites it did not just begin with drinking at separate fountains and riding in the back of the bus, there was more, which was very hurtful for them to...
Words: 693 - Pages: 3
...Scott was told that he was not a citizen of the United States because he was a negro. Well that was until he took it to court. Browns case was made for "separate but equal" public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. The case of Shelley vs Kreamer helped change the outlook today on African Americans owning property. There are three court cases that changed the path of the civil rights which include: The Dred Scott vs Standford case , Brown vs the Board of Education case, and Shelly vs Kreamer case. Dred Scott is a man that went to court to sue against Standford for the right to be considered a citizen and not a piece of property. From 1833- 1843 Dred Scott stayed in Illinois because of the Louisiana territory was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. After moving back to Missouri Scott sued for his freedom but was unsuccessful. Then that's when he brought a new case to court. Scotts master says that " no pure-blooded Negro of African descent and the descendant of slaves could be a citizen in the sense of Article III of the Constitution." Dred Scott sued for his freedom and when that didn't work he didn't let it stop him. He...
Words: 551 - Pages: 3
...Jim Crow Laws The Jim Crow Laws were based on a popular character who was dressed as an old, decrepit, black man. The laws were created to keep white and black people separated. In To Kill A Mockingbird, white and black people lived separately, but they still interacted with each other. Even though they weren’t exactly segregated, many people didn’t approve of the blacks interacting with them. In the 1870’s a law passed that required the segregation of black and white people in transportation (“J im Crow Law | United States [18771954]”). In 1892, Homer Plessy, a lightskinned creole of color was kicked off for sitting in the white section on a train. Homer had light skin, but in the eyes of the government he was black. He refused to get up and go to the black section on the train. The court ruled the law as constitutional, this opened up the way to even more segregation laws. These laws are known as the Jim Crow Laws. During the Jim Crow era, it was illegal for a white man to marry a black woman, or for a white woman to marry a black man (“Jim Crow Laws” To Kill a Mockingbird, ). In Adolphus Raymond is a drunk who is married to a black woman (Lee, 267). But it turns out that he doesn’t even drink (Lee, 267). He drinks so that people will think he married a black woman because he is a drunk and doesn’t know what he’s doing (Lee, 267). The Jim Crow Laws made it to where only white people could own public buildings and ...
Words: 1023 - Pages: 5