The Supreme Court case, Brown vs. Board of Education 349 U.S 294, dealt with the
segregation of black children into “separate but equal schools.” The Brown vs. Board of
Education was not the first case that dealt with the separating of the whites and blacks in schools.
This case was actually made up of five separate cases heard in the United States Supreme court
concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Boiling v. Sharpe,
and Gebhart v. Ethel were the five cases that made up the Brown case. Thurgood, Marshall, and
the National Association for the Advance of Colored People (NCAAP) handled these cases. At
first
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In this case the plaintiff would be Brown. This
side is saying that the schools are violating the “equal protection clause” of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The defendant is the side that is getting accused of some
type of crime, and in this case it would be the Board of Education. This side is saying that the
schools are “separate but equal schools.” In June of 1953, the court was still divided over the
issue, so the court decided on a rehear in December of 1953. Within those few short months,
Chief Justice Fred Vinson died and was replaced by Governor Earl Warren of California. After
the case was reheard in December, Gov. Warren got all of the justices to decide, unanimously,
that the segregation in the public schools was unconstitutional. Since the vote was unanimous,
Gov. Warren delivered the opinion of the court. He said that they concluded that the separate
educational facilities are not equal and the plaintiffs are deprived of the equal protection of the
laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court did not immediately try to
give give direction for the implementation of its ruling, rather, it asked the attorney generals