homework for American history

11/15/2018 Give Me Liberty (Brief), 5E

https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty5osu/OEBPS/insert-chapter35.xhtml 1/4

M

✯

U. S . S U P R E M E C O U R T

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, a case

challenging state-sanctioned racial segregation in public schools. The case originated in Topeka, Kansas,

where the father of a third-grader challenged a school district board-sanctioned policy that required his

daughter to walk to a distant “black” elementary school even though a “white” school was nearby. Such

legal segregation might appear to violate the “equal protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; but

in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court had held that separate facilities were legal as long as they

were equal in quality, a ruling that opened the door to widespread segregation of schools and other public

facilities for more than half a century. After World War II, the National Association for the Advancement

of Colored People filed a series of lawsuits challenging the “separate but equal” doctrine in various arenas.

The Supreme Court sided with the N.A.A.C.P. in some of these challenges, but not until the Brown decision

did it explicitly overturn its earlier ruling and declare that segregated public schools were inherently

unequal. The unanimous decision, drafted by Chief Justice Earl Warren (1891–1974), marked a legal

turning point and helped launch the best-known phase of the civil rights movement.

As you read this decision, think carefully about the reasons the Court offers for rejecting the “separate

but equal” doctrine in 1954. What had changed since 1896?

From Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954).

R. CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN delivered the opinion of the Court.

These cases come to us from the States of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and

Delaware.1 They are premised on different facts and different local conditions, but a

common legal question justifies their consideration together in this consolidated opinion.

In each of the cases, minors of the Negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of

the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their community on a nonsegregated basis.

In each instance, they had been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws

requiring or permitting segregation according to race. This segregation was alleged to deprive the

plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. In each of the cases

other than the Delaware case, a three-judge federal district court denied relief to the plaintiffs on the

so-called “separate but equal” doctrine announced by this Court in Plessy v. Ferguson. Under that

doctrine, equality of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities,

11/15/2018 Give Me Liberty (Brief), 5E

https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty5osu/OEBPS/insert-chapter35.xhtml 2/4

even though these facilities be separate. In the Delaware case, the Supreme Court of Delaware

adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that the plaintiffs be admitted to the white schools because of

their superiority to the Negro schools.

The plaintiffs contend that segregated public schools are not “equal” and cannot be made “equal,”

and that hence they are deprived of the equal protection of the laws. Because of the obvious

importance of the question presented, the Court took jurisdiction. Argument was heard in the 1952

Term, and reargument was heard this Term on certain question propounded by the Court.

Reargument was largely devoted to the circumstances surrounding the adoption of the Fourteenth

Amendment in 1868. It covered exhaustively consideration of the Amendment in Congress, ratification

by the states, then-existing practices in racial segregation, and the views of proponents and

opponents of the Amendment. This discussion and our own investigation convince us that, although

these sources cast some light, it is not enough to resolve the problem with which we are faced. At

best, they are inconclusive. The most avid proponents of the post-War Amendments2 undoubtedly

intended them to remove all legal distinctions among “all persons born or naturalized in the United

States.” Their opponents, just as certainly, were antagonistic to both the letter and the spirit of the

Amendments and wished them to have the most limited effect. What others in Congress and the state

legislatures had in mind cannot be determined with any degree of certainty.

An additional reason for the inconclusive nature of the Amendment’s history with respect to

segregated schools is the status of public education at that time. In the South, the movement toward

free common schools, supported by general taxation, had not yet taken hold. Education of white

children was largely in the hands of private groups. Education of Negroes was almost nonexistent, and

practically all of the race were illiterate. In fact, any education of Negroes was forbidden by law in

some states. Today, in contrast, many Negroes have achieved outstanding success in the arts and

sciences, as well as in the business and professional world. It is true that public school education at

the time of the Amendment had advanced further in the North, but the effect of the Amendment on

Northern States was generally ignored in the congressional debates. Even in the North, the conditions

of public education did not approximate those existing today. The curriculum was usually

rudimentary; ungraded schools were common in rural areas; the school term was but three months a

year in many states, and compulsory school attendance was virtually unknown. As a consequence, it is

not surprising that there should be so little in the history of the Fourteenth Amendment relating to its

intended effect on public education.

In the first cases in this Court construing the Fourteenth Amendment, decided shortly after its

adoption, the Court interpreted it as proscribing all state-imposed discriminations against the Negro

race. The doctrine of “separate but equal” did not make its appearance in this Court until 1896 in the

case of Plessy v. Ferguson, involving not education but transportation. American courts have since

labored with the doctrine for over half a century.

*  *  *

11/15/2018 Give Me Liberty (Brief), 5E

https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty5osu/OEBPS/insert-chapter35.xhtml 3/4

There are findings below that the Negro and white schools involved have been equalized, or are

being equalized, with respect to buildings, curricula, qualifications and salaries of teachers, and other

“tangible” factors. Our decision, therefore, cannot turn on merely a comparison of these tangible

factors in the Negro and white schools involved in each of the cases. We must look instead to the

effect of segregation itself on public education.

In approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868, when the Amendment was

adopted, or even to 1896, when Plessy v. Ferguson was written. We must consider public education in

the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation. Only in

this way can it be determined if segregation in public schools deprives these plaintiffs of the equal

protection of the laws.

Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments.

Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our

recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the

performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very

foundation of good citizenship. Today it is the principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural

values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his

environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life

if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken

to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.

We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on

the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal, deprive

the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.

In Sweatt v. Painter3 in finding that a segregated law school for Negroes could not provide them

equal educational opportunities, this Court relied in large part on “those qualities which are incapable

of objective measurement but which make for greatness in a law school.” In McLaurin v. Oklahoma

State Regents,4 the Court, in requiring that a Negro admitted to a white graduate school be treated like

all other students, again resorted to intangible considerations: “.  .  . his ability to study, to engage in

discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession.” Such

considerations apply with added force to children in grade and high schools. To separate them from

others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as

to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be

undone. The effect of this separation on their educational opportunities was well stated by a finding

in the Kansas case by a court which nevertheless felt compelled to rule against the Negro plaintiffs:

Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored

children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the

races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority

11/15/2018 Give Me Liberty (Brief), 5E

https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty5osu/OEBPS/insert-chapter35.xhtml 4/4

affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a

tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them

of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system.

Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time of Plessy v. Ferguson, this

finding is amply supported by modern authority. Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this

finding is rejected.

We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place.

Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and

others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation

complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth

Amendment. . . .

Study Questions

1. According to the Brown decision, why do the circumstances surrounding the adoption of the

Fourteenth Amendment have limited bearing on this case?

2. Why does the Supreme Court reject its own precedent in Plessy v. Ferguson? On what kind of

evidence or logic does its argument rest?

3. In 1954 the United States was in the midst of a cold war and less than ten years removed from

World War II. How might this have affected the Court’s judgment about the role of education in

American society?

4. Chief Justice Warren thought it essential that the Court issue a unanimous decision in Brown. (He

considered this so critical, in fact, that he agreed to postpone a ruling on the decision’s

implementation and eventually accepted vague language on this point.) Why do you think Warren

considered unanimity in this case so crucial?