8/14/2019 Brown v Board of Education 1954.docx

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8/14/2019 Brown v Board of Education 1954.docx

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0Brown vs. Board allowed children of colour to attend schools that had been previously set aside for

whites only, and was intended to ensure an equal education for all children in this country.

It changed all civil rights for minorities in schools. It took care of the "separate but equal." Saying it

wasn't equal and segregation created inferior treatment, services and accommodations in schools

making it therefore unconstitutional.

It was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier rulings of

Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, declaring state laws established separate public schools for black and

white students denied black children equal educational opportunities.

African-Americans were fighting for their rights in a non-violent way and this was a break through.

Background

Since the Browncase,race relations in the U.S. had been dominated byracial segregation. This

policy was endorsed in1896 by the case ofPlessy v. Ferguson,which stated as long as the separatefacilities for the separate races were equal, segregation did not violate the Fourteenth

Amendment ("no State shall... deny to any person... the equal protection of the laws.").

Theplaintiffs in Brownasserted this system ofracial separation,while pretending to provide separate

but equal treatment of both white and black Americans, instead gave inferior accommodations,

services, and treatment for black Americans. Racial segregation in education varied from the 17

states that required racial segregation.

Brown II

In 1955, the Supreme Court considered arguments by the schools requesting relief concerning the

task of desegregation. In their decision, which became known as "Brown II," the court delegated the

task of school desegregation to district courts with orders that desegregation occur "with all deliberate

speed.

Supporters of the earlier decision were displeased with this decision. The language all deliberate

speed was seen by critics as too ambiguous to ensure reasonable haste for compliance with the

court's instruction. Southern states and school districts interpreted "Brown II" as legal justification for

resisting, delaying, and avoiding significant integration for years using tactics like closing down school

systems, using state money to finance segregated "private" schools and "token" integration where a

few carefully selected black children were admitted to former white-only schools but the vast majority

remained in underfunded, unequal black schools.

Based on "Brown II," the U.S. District Court ruled thatPrince Edward County, Virginia did not have to

desegregate immediately. When faced with a court order to begin desegregation in 1959 the county

board of supervisors stopped appropriating money for public schools, which remained closed for five

years.

White students in the county were given assistance to attend white-only "private academies" that were

taught by teachers formerly employed by the public school system, while black students had no

education at all unless they moved out of the county.q

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