Brown v Board of Education

As recently as 1950, segregation was common across the United States. It was not until the Supreme Court ruled on Brown v. Board of Education four years later that segregation laws began to lose their legal standing.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: Date and Timeline

In 1896, the Supreme Court heard Plessy v. Ferguson. The case centered around Homer Plessy, who had challenged the segregation of railway cars in Louisiana. When convicted of sitting in a “whites-only” car, he sued the judge for violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The equal protection clause guarantees equal treatment under the law:

The Supreme Court decided against Plessy, creating the “separate but equal” doctrine. The doctrine essentially legalized segregation by affirming that so long as facilities for white and black citizens were the same, they could be separate. The “separate but equal” doctrine became legal precedent, guiding future segregation decisions.

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman decided to desegregate the armed forces and fight against discriminatory practices in hiring federal employees. Of course, this was a slow process, and it did not end the practice of segregation across the United States. Civil rights organizations, namely the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP), would have to take the matter into their own hands.

The NAACP, founded in 1909, had spent its earlier years fighting for legislation to end segregation in the United States but did not find much luck. By the mid-20th century, they had shifted strategies to fight their case in the judicial system, and they would find success in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Brown v. Board of Education Summary

In 1951, Oliver Brown sued the school district of Topeka for forcing his daughter, Linda Brown, to travel across town to attend her school when a “whites-only” school was far closer. His case and four similar cases from other states came before the Supreme Court in 1952. These cases were:

• Briggs v. Elliot

• Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County

• Gebhart v. Belton

• Bolling v. Sharpe

The Supreme Court grouped them together under Brown v. Board of Education.

The NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund provided a legal team led by civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall. Marshall argued that facilities could not actually be “separate but equal.” When it came to schools, schools for white students received far more funding than those for black students. Additionally, he brought in social sciences, arguing that segregated schools gave black children a sense of inferiority.

Fig. 1 - Thurgood Marshall

After hearing the arguments, the Supreme Court was unable to come to a decision. As a result, Brown v. Board of Education came before the Supreme Court once again in 1953, this time with a new Chief Justice, Earl Warren.

Fig. 2 - Chief Justice Earl Warren

Brown v. Board of Education Ruling

In contrast to his predecessor, Fred Vinson, Chief Justice Earl Warren believed in judicial activism rather than judicial restraint. He believed that the Supreme Court held power to make real change in the United States. After rehearing the case in 1953, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Oliver Brown:

After almost five decades, the Supreme Court overturned the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson, ruling that “separate but equal” was inherently unequal. This meant segregation in schools did violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Brown v. Board of Education Ruling: Brown v. Board of Education II

But how was the Supreme Court going to enforce its ruling? In a second ruling in 1955, known as Brown v. Board of Education II, the Supreme Court ruled that any future segregation cases would go through district courts. These district courts as well as local school boards were to be in charge of desegregation which the Supreme Court ruled must happen at “all deliberate speed.”

Brown v. Board of Education Impact

Brown v. Board of Education was a major win for the civil rights movement and gave it momentum. With the Supreme Court under the influence of Chief Justice Earl Warren’s judicial activism, many cases went through the court with the end result of desegregation.

Fig. 3 - Rosa Parks

However, the vague meaning of “all deliberate speed” in Brown v. Board of Education II

allowed local courts and politicians to evade desegregation. In 1956, congressmen from the South issued the “Southern Manifesto” declaring that Brown v. Board of Education was a breach of judicial power.

Brown v. Board of Education Significance

On a legal level, it is also significant that, rather than relying solely on precedent, the Supreme Court heard evidence from sociological testing to make a decision. Detractors argued that this was outside the law and took away from the decision’s validity. Arguments over social science evidence still exist to this day.