Brown+v.+Board+of+Education+(R2)

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Brown vs. Board of Education 1954 By: Ali Miller and Tyler Albitz FACTS/BACKGROUND: 1. In Topeka, Kansas, an African American elementary student named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her school. An elementary school for Whites was only up the road.

2. Oliver Brown, who was Linda’s father tried to enroll her in the white elementary school, but the principal of the school refused to let her in. 3. Oliver Brown went to McKinley Burnett, who was the head of Topeka’s branch of NAACP, and asked for his help. NAACP stands for The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

4. Other African American parents joined Brown in his fight, and in 1951 the NAACP requested an injunction, that would not allow the segregation in their public schools.

5. The District of Kansas heard Oliver Brown's case from June 25 to June 26, 1951.

6. At the trial, they argued that segregated schools sent a immoral message to the African American children stating that they were not equal to whites, which made the schools unequal to them.

7. Dr. Hugh W. Speer, testified that: "...if the colored children are denied the experience in school of associating with white children, who represent 90 percent of our national society in which these colored children must live, then the colored child's curriculum is being greatly curtailed. The Topeka curriculum or any school curriculum cannot be equal under segregation."

8. Brown appealed to the Supreme Court on October 1, 1951.

9. The Supreme Court heard the case on December, 9 1952 and they failed to reach a decision.

10. On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the decision which established that in public schools the “separate but equal” doctrine wasn’t rational and that the White schools were definitely unequal to the African American schools. ISSUE/MAJOR QUESTION Most black schools were substandard to white schools.

MAJOR LAW OR RIGHTS DISCUSSED The Fourteenth Amendment DECISION The Supreme Court took away the “separate but equal doctrine” and called for the desegregation of schools across the United States. They requested for an injunction. The judges agreed with the expert witness that the schools were not equal under segregation. Because of the precedent from Plessy v. Ferguson the court was persuaded to rule in favor of The Board of Education.

In the argument the Court requested that both sides discuss the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Court decided whether or not the Fourteenth Amendment had desegregated schools in mind. REASONING Chief Justice Earl Warren read their decision: "We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does...We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.” IMPACT All schools were desegregated across the United States. DISSENTING ARGUMENT  The Board of Education's argument was that because segregation in Topeka and other places spread through many other aspects of life, segregated schools were preparing African American children for the segregation they would face during the rest of their lives. The board also fought that segregated schools were not really harmful to them. Also, African Americans such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington had to achieve much more difficult obstacles other than segregation to get to their goals.