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Brown V. Board Of Education Case Study

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The Supreme Court is the ultimate judge in US cases involving laws of Congress, and the Constitution. Brown v. Board of education of Topeka was a United States Supreme Court Case that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students is unconstitutional. Although it did not fully succeed in desegregating public schools, it promoted racial equality and motivated the new civil rights movement into a revolution. This case is now acknowledged as one of the most inspiring supreme Court decisions of the 20th century and is a story of courage and hope. In 1954, racially segregated schools were accustomed and legal by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Plessy v. Ferguson according to the Oyez Project at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law, “The justices based their decision on the ‘separate’ but equal doctrine, that separates facilities for blacks and whites satisfied the fourteenth amendment so long as they were equal (Oyez, 1).” However, as the mid- twentieth century came along, political and legal challenges were set up by civil rights groups. In the 1950’s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), introduced lawsuits for the sake of African- …show more content…

Board of education. Oliver Brown claimed that Topeka’s racial segregation contravened the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause due to the fact that the black and white schools were not equal. His claim was closed down by the federal district court, deciding that “the segregated public schools were "’substantially’ equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine (McBride,1)” stated by Alex McBride, a writer on the Tulane law review. Brown interested the Supreme Court, which reinforced and revised the segregation actions of all schools

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416 Words | 2 Pages

The Court declined his argument. The Court determined that the segregated schools were considerably equal enough under the Plessy doctrine. It wasn 't until the mid twentieth century when Brown v Board of Education came into play that Plessy’s argument was given the okay by the constitution. The Court tried to use Plessy v. Ferguson to deny the argument that Oliver Brown was giving during the Brown v. Board of Education case. Once the Courts decided that separating children by race could have an overall affect on the black children 's ability to learn.

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In 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education the Supreme Court ruled in favor of African Americans stating that segregating public schools by race was unconstitutional. Meaning African Americans could finally get a good education in a more established school with better resources. This started the massive resistance from multiple schools in the southern states like Alabama, Arkansas and Virginia. Where they ordered schools to close to keep from having to comply with the Supreme court ruling. Eventually the courts had to intervene and force schools to comply with segregation order.

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871 Words | 4 Pages

Some of his and Justice John Harlan's arguments, laid the groundwork for future actions against an oppressive government. Oliver Brown used many of the same arguments as Homer Plessy, such as stating that separate but equal doctrine was unconstitutional because it violated the plaintiffs 13th and 14th amendment rights. While these arguments were before unsuccessful in Plessy v. Ferguson, they were later successfully backed up by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, overruling the earlier set precedent. After the separate but equal precedent was over ruled, separate but equal school facilities were forced to be integrated. Long before this groundbreaking ruling, Justice John Harlan thought that the U.S. constitution should be “color-blind”, and his dreams were one step closer, though he was not there to see it.

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka is acknowledges as one of the greatest supreme court decisions of the 20t century (Alex McBride n.d 1paragraph) in 1954 most of the united states ad segregated schools the reason why there could be these segregated schools is because of the Plessy vs. Ferguson trial. This case was decided in 1896. With the case they decided that it was not breaking any laws to have segregated schools. The only qualification was that there was equal opportunity for schooling. Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka was one of the several cases that caused the segregation to not be allowed.

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The decision in Brown v. Board of Education established a powerful legal precedent that challenged the constitutionality of segregation and discrimination. It paved the way for subsequent legal victories in the fight for civil rights, including landmark legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of

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Board of Education of Topeka. The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of black parents in Topeka, Kansas on behalf of their children forced to attend all-black segregated schools. Through Brown v. Board, one of the most important cases of the 20th century, Marshall challenged head-on the legal underpinning of racial segregation, the doctrine of "separate but equal" established by the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson.” May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that "separate inculcative facilities are inherently unequal," and ergo racial segregation of public schools infringed the equal bulwark clause of the 14th Amendment. While enforcement of the Court's ruling proved to be uneven and painfully slow, Brown v. Board provided the licit substructure, and much of the inspiration, for the American Civil Rights Movement that unfolded over the next decade.

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Education was separated into two different schools for people of different color. Plessy v. Ferguson is a case that came about due to the Jim Crow laws. This case which took place in the 1890s was the first to challenge the court on these laws. It was required for people of color to give up their seats to the whites on trains and busses, but a man by the

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Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped to establish that “separate but equal” education and other services were not equal at all. In 1896, the Supreme Court had ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racially segregated public facilities were legal as so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal”. However, Oliver Brown, in his lawsuit, claimed that schools for black children were not equal to the white schools, and that segregation violated the so called “equal protection clause” of the 14th Amendment, which holds that no state can “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The case went before the U.S. District Court in Kansas, which agreed that public school segregation had a “harmful effect upon the colored children” and contributed to “a sense of inability,” but still upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine. In its verdict, the Supreme Court did not specify how exactly schools should be integrated, but asked for further arguments about

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Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the court believed that segregation of public education based only on race is unconstitutional due to the fact that this practice of segregation violates the Equal Protection Clause under the Fourteenth Amendment. This groundbreaking decision overturned the “separate but equal” principle of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). The Court agreed with Brown that “separate but equal” facilities are naturally unequal. In addition, they verified Brown’s conclusion of the sense of inferiority segregation instilled in African American children and the terrible effect on the educational and personal growth of African American children.

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229 Words | 1 Pages

The case of Brown v. Board of Education was claimed by the Supreme Court to be one of the greatest cases of the 20th century. In 1896 the Plessy v. Ferguson case was passed which declared that schools shall be segregated but equal. The issue was that the schools were not really equal. Psychological studies showed that black girls had lower self esteem that the white girls. The Court saw this as a problem that could lead to dangerous complexes that could potentially harm the children's learning ability.

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May 17, 1954, the federal Supreme Court announced its decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” the Court ruled unanimously, declaring that they violated the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision overturned the policy of “separate but Equal,” which had become accustomed by a majority of citizens since 1896, when the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson was passed. The Brown ruling was the outcome of decades of effort by the N.A.A.C.P. - and today has developed into a customary policy. It did not seem expected at the time and the fact that the decision was a unanimous vote was little short of a miracle.

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574 Words | 3 Pages

Brown v. Board of Education is considered one of the most important rulings in the court’s history. The ruling helped to inspire the American Civil Rights Movement and also took the steps to make education equal. Without this case it would have taken a longer time for desegregation to start and there would be a big change in our history. 2 Works Cited PBS , Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_brown.html. “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.”

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Extensive testimony was provided to support that segregation resulted in both unequal education and low self-esteem among minority students. The Brown’s lawyers argued that segregation by law implied that minorities were inferior to whites. The Board of Education viewed that schools for nonwhites in Topeka were equal and were in complete exactitude with the Plessy standard. They felt that the programs for the minority children were better than those offered at the schools for whites. They stated that the Plessy decision of 1896 supported segregation, and they argued that they actually created equal facilities even though they were segregated.

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1618 Words | 7 Pages

Brown v. Board of Education-Significant for Education and Civil Rights John Ryan- History 407 There were many great moments in the civil rights movement, but none stands out more to me than the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. As an Education major I understand that this case truly addressed the crippling effects of segregation and gave black learners the opportunity to pursue a truly equal education. The Brown case went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1954, where school segregation was determined to be against the United States Constitution (Court, 1954). The decision was unanimous, which gave some insight into the times and how they were changing to better address what was taking place in the hearts and minds

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Ferguson was a major setback for civil rights in the United States. Upholding the “separate but equal” doctrine, allowing racial segregation, and encouraging discrimination were all terrible conclusions of how the government limited the rights of its citizens. On a positive note, the outcome of Plessy v. Ferguson served as the basis of the start of the Civil Rights Movement that took place across America during the 1950s and ‘60s. Over time, the Supreme Court realised its bias and began expanding the rights of its citizens through landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education Topeka and ratifying the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, the Court declared segregation in American public schools unconstitutional; the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination against any race, colour, religion, sex, or origin in many areas of public life, including in education and transportation.

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