In the early 1950s, the United States Supreme Court took on a land mark case known today as Brown v. Board of Education. In this case, the highest court of the United States debated upon the pressing issues of segregation inside of the public education system. More specifically, they revisited a previous case, Plessy v. Fergusson from the late 1800s, where the Supreme Court ruled that facilities specifically designated for African Americans could remain legally segregated, so long as they were equal to the public facilities designated for white Americans, hence the phrase “separate, but equal.”1 In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the decision in Plessy v. Fergusson violated the equal protection act of the …show more content…
Board of Education of Topeka. After much debate, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously against segregation; they decided that “separate but equal” did not apply due to the fact that African American schools were extremely unequal and that African American students were being “deprived of the equal protection laws of the 14th amendment.”1 The goal of this case was to end segregation in the public education system and help lead to desegregation in all aspects of life; Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses the success of Brown v. Board of Education over 65 years …show more content…
Board of Education. In her article, Hannah-Jones stated that a mere 1% of African American children attended school with white children in 1963, but by the early 70s, this number jumped to an astounding 90%.2 Throughout the article, Hannah-Jones talks about a multiplicity of cases where desegregation orders have been dismissed or “lost,” however, there remains a glaring lack of actual statistics that show segregation in the public education system. For these reasons, the goals of the Supreme Court’s goals have been accomplished. Obviously, the country still faces extreme racial disparities and continues to strive for equality, but in the early 1950s, no one could have predicted the rapid success of Brown v. Board of Education. While this decision did not directly put any policies in place to integrate schools, it created a pathway for extremely important