Landmark Case Analysis of Brown v. Board of Education
HIST1002 - United States History II
University of Cincinnati
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States voted unanimously in favor of a
group of 5 plaintiff’s whose conglomeration of cases became known as Brown v. Board of
Education. This historic, landmark decision ruled that segregation in schools violated the 14th
amendment of the constitution, which guarantees that no state can “deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” More specifically it determined that segregated
schools were inherently unequal, negatively impacted students’ psyche by imparting inferiority
complexes, and in the end interfered with children’s ability to learn. This ruling, in effect,
overturned the previous 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which declared that segregation
laws did not violate the US constitution, so long as separate facilities were equal.
Implementationof the Brown decision was ultimately delayed in primarily southern states, and
has arguably not fully succeeded in its goal to this day. However, despite these setbacks, the
Brown ruling did give civil rights advocates a sense of hope that eventually catalyzed
substantial legislative victories. The series of school segregation cases were originally
presented to the Supreme Court in 1952. At the time, Kentuckian Fred M. Vinson was the Chief
Justice, and he argued that the Plessy decision should be upheld. That is, he was in favor of
keeping segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson era.
However, in September 1953, Vinson unexpectedly died of a heart attack, before Brown v.
Board of Education was ever heard.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Earl Warren as Vinson’s replacement, which was a
particularly significant turn of events. As the governor of California, Warren had previously
outlawed any form of school segregation in a direct response to a school segregation case
known as Mendez v Westminster. He brought this same fervor to his role as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and under his leadership, the Supreme Court Justices were more united in
their decision to sign on to his opinion regarding Brown v Board of Education. The plaintiff
for which the case was named was Oliver Brown, and he went head on against the Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, there were actually four separate cases that were also
consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education case: Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of
Education of Prince Edward County, Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. These cases were
ushered into the Supreme Court at a time where the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was spearheading the effort to attack segregation laws all over
the country, specifically as they pertained to education. Thurgood Marshall and Charles
Hamilton Houston, the two heads of the NAACP legal Defense and Education Fund, both
considered Jim Crow segregation laws to be most vulnerable when it came to education.
Therefore, as early as 1936 they targeted cases where Universities had rejected qualified
applicants on the basis of race. There were four notable cases that paved the way for the Brown
v. Board of Education decision: Murray v. Maryland in 1936, Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada
in 1938, Sweat v. Painter in 1950, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher
Education in 1950. However, none of the aforementioned cases got a reaction quite like Brown
v. Board of Education. At first, the Supreme Court gave no specific direction on when states
should desegregate their schools. Instead, they let each state draft up a plan for how they would
roll out educational integration.The political climate of the South was characterized by the
minimization,unacknowledgement, or even the complete disregard of racial conflicts. Though,
a year after the Brown decision, the Supreme Court issued another opinion in Brown v. Board
of Education II, where they specified that integration was to happen with “all deliberate speed.”
The Brown I andBrown II cases had the effect of severely radicalizing Southern Democrats.
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education the governor of Arkansas, Orval E. Faubus, had actually
run on a “race-neutral” platform. He even desegregated public transportation in his state.It was
only after seeing the political, public backlash to the Brown rulings that he had a change of
heart. This was, in large part, a response made in the interest of satisfying his constituents, in
order to retain their votes and secure his place in the next election. In the end, Arkansas became
asymbol for southern resistance to Brown. In 1957, Faubus even used the Arkansas National
Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock. A year
after that, in 1958, he closed down the schools to further prevent integration of Black students,
and he did so under the guise of protecting them from violence from the mobs that gathered in
outrage. President Eisenhower responded by putting the Arkansas National Guard under federal
authority,and deploying a thousand U.S. Army troops to oversee the desegregation of Central
High School. Presently, the United States no longer sanctions de jure segregation, but it still is
seeing de facto segregation in neighborhoods, and thus schools, at an alarming rate. The same
holds truefor educational achievement gaps amongst minority students. Given this reality, some
argue that the Brown rulings were a failure in the end, and that educational desegregation is
better addressed through urban housing policies, early childhood programs, support for parents
to be more effective care-givers, after-school programs that expand students’ general
background knowledge, and having highly skilled teachers, counselors, and social workers.
Regardless of thecurrent criticisms though, Brown v. Board of Education I and II inspired
Southern Black people to zealously and aggressively challenge segregation in a way they had
never done. Although it equally pushed Southern White people to defend it just as vigorously,
the Brown cases set an anti-segregation precedent. It helped inspire Rosa Park and the
Montgomery bus boycott, as well as sit-ins and demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr.
These movements lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow laws and supplemental legislation like
the Civil Rights Act of 1957, theCivil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. It was a win that civil rights advocates needed to continue
combatting legally sanctioned race-based discrimination.
