Slavery ended in the United States with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865. With this came the division of racial lines that were now visible and enforced by law. Although slavery had been outlawed, white Americans still found ways to enforce their feelings of superiority, thus taking away any power that the 13th Amendment gave. In the years to come, this dividing line between white and black American became exceptionally clear through the means of segregation. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, segregation was legal in the United States and was heavily followed in the South. Blacks and whites were separated by facilities such as public bathrooms, transportation, and drinking fountains. With the Supreme Court’s decision in the …show more content…
Ferguson unconstitutional, a feat that would immensely impact both white and black Americans and the course of how the country will run. Marshall, an African American himself, had become known for being involved in civil rights cases and was “trumpeted as the one man able to defend black Americans against the Klan, racist judges, and bigoted small-town cops” (McNeese). The opportunity for the Supreme Court take a stand against racism opened on December 9, 1952. The prosecution centered around the 14th Amendment which states, “No state has any authority under the equal protection of clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to use race as a factor in affording the educational opportunities among its citizens” (Constitution). The prosecution had a range of expert witnesses that they called to the stand to develop the disastrous effects that segregation has on young children. Dr. Hugh Speer, the chair of Education at the University of Kansas City, served as an expert witness to the trial after performing studies on the public schools in Topeka. He found that in every case the white schools were physically superior to the black schools (McNeese). Horace B. English, a psychology professor from Ohio State University, was deemed an expert witness and testified that segregation of black and white children teaches black students that they do not matter as much as white students and that expectations for black students are much lower than those of white (McNeese). Louisa Holt, a Kansas University professor of psychology, made a crucial point when she stated, “The fact that is enforced, that it is legal, I think, has more importance than the mere fact of segregation by itself does because this gives legal and official sanction to a policy which is inevitably interpreted both by white people and by Negroes as denoting the inferiority of