Brown v. Board of Education
Reverend Oliver Brown walked seven blocks with his eight-year-old daughter Linda to enroll her at Sumner Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, in 1950. The principal told him that she was unable to enroll, because Sumner was for whites only (Dudley 8). And so, Linda was forced to leave her house early in the morning, walk across dangerous railroad tracks to a bus stop, and wait in the cold for the usually late bus so she could attend Monroe School for black students on the other side of town. Brown decided that this was the time to stand up for the constitutional rights of his daughter, and filed a lawsuit (Fireside 6). The NAACP took up the case, known as Brown v. Board of Education, which would rule that racial segregation “violates the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws” (Brown et al.). The ruling empowered African Americans in that it contributed to the desegregation of the public education system, bringing them from a state of oppression to one of empowerment, although the desegregation is not perfect even today.
Since the birth of the United States, African Americans have suffered oppression. Although the Civil War ended the enslavement of blacks through the Thirteenth Amendment, there was still widespread discrimination, and by no means were they given the same rights and freedoms as white American citizens (Fireside 16). State and local governments in the South created “Jim Crow” Laws, which discriminated against people of African descent by not allowing them to use the same facilities as whites. By these laws, blacks were forced to sit in separate sections on buses, drink from separate water fountains, and attend different schools than whites. The facilities which they were required to use by law were always of lesser quality than those used by whites (Miller 7). One famous example of the implementation of the Jim Crow Laws involves a man named Homer A. Plessy, who claimed to be “seven eighths Caucasian.” He bought a first class train ticket in New Orleans and was asked to move to a coach area for black passengers. He was arrested and jailed for his refusal to move, and his Plessy v. Ferguson case ruled that “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional. The ruling argued that the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants all American citizens equal protection under the law, only granted equal political protection, and not social (Fireside 23; U.S. Const.).
Racial segregation in public education played a big role in the oppression. During the most of the nineteenth century, slave owners did not allow their black slaves to learn to read, write, or receive an education of any sort. After the Civil War, freed African Americans attended the same schools as whites for a few years. The white communities in the South cooperated with these Reconstruction laws so they could eventually run their local governments without help from the “carpetbaggers” sent by federal government. However, when Rutherford B. Hayes won a disputed presidential election in 1876, he declared that he would not enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, which guarantees American citizens of all races the right to vote (U.S. Const.). President Hayes’ policies allowed southern states to enforce the Jim Crow laws. As a result, blacks were forced to attend schools which were, in contrast to schools for whites, poorly maintained, setting a precedent that would allow for nearly a century of discrimination by the government towards African Americans (Fireside 20).
Although lawsuits had been filed for nearly one hundred years concerning the equality of education for blacks and whites, they were only ever won by rights activists beginning at about the 1930s. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) became involved in stopping the oppression of African Americans all over the nation by making certain that they would receive their right to an equal education. In the 1938 case, Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, the Supreme Court ruled that, in accordance with the “separate but equal” that either law schools for blacks in the South would have to be built, or the white law schools would have to grant them their right to an education by accepting black applicants (Dudley 31). McKinley Burnett, president of the Topeka, Kansas chapter of the NAACP, and his colleagues devised a strategy to grant blacks the same education as whites. Thirteen parents and their twenty children requested enrollment for their children in schools for whites. When they were denied, they provided the NAACP with the documentation necessary to file a lawsuit against the Board of Education of Topeka. Thus began Brown v. Board of Education, a case which actually ruled on five different, but similar cases all at once (Brown Foundation).
Arguments for the two-year case began on December 9, 1952, under the complaint that “segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools…denies to Negro children to equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment” (Brown et al.). Robert Carter and Thurgood Marshall, representing Brown, pointed out that psychologists in the Briggs v. Elliot trial had stated that segregation destroyed a black child’s self-respect. Defense attorney John W. Davis argued that the Fourteenth Amendment had not been intended to integrate public schools and that segregation was necessary for peace between races in the South (Dudley 47; Fireside 56). However, Chief Justice Earl Warren, who had become head of the Supreme Court almost one year after the trial began, concluded on May 17, 1954 at 12:52 PM “that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” (Brown et al.). The reality of the Jim Crow laws was finally addressed, and they were banned, empowering and granting African Americans their rights as citizens.
Initially, the South did not protest the ruling, as change was not immediate. Resistance began when black students were admitted to attend an all-white school in Milford, Delaware. This caused the NAACP to realize that in order for southern states to cooperate, they would have to accept gradual change. Some states put up further resistance, asking for extra time to integrate, but Marshall maintained that federal law it was necessary for federal law be enforced in the same way throughout the country. Some states attempted to evade the ruling by adopting “freedom of choice” policies. Pupil-placement laws made changing schools difficult by requiring students to complete several tests. Throughout the next few decades, the help of various presidents was required for the Civil Rights Movement to progress (Dudley 68).
Today’s schools are, for the most part, integrated. Students of all races are allowed to attend the same schools, and there are is little complaint of oppression. However there is still some obvious social and racial segregation. In 2005, Abbie Kopf, a columnist for The Daily Toreador in Lubbock, Texas, noted that an elementary school in a predominantly black area of the town had no playground or lights. Her column went on to mention that her own elementary school of mostly white students, was maintained with much more care, concluding that separate and unequal facilities still exist (Kopf).
The case Brown v. Board of Education is a highly relevant topic when discussing the theme “oppression to empowerment” for many reasons, as it paved the way for African Americans to reach equality among races. The ruling of the case is among the first of its kind, and lead the way for further social reform. While perhaps there is still social segregation today, Brown has brought America to a great improvement.
[Works Cited missing... sorry guys!]