American history Homework Assignment

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

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, 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.

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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.

* * *

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:

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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 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?