Brown V Board Of Education Essay

Brown V. Board of Education

Brown V. Board of education occurred in 1954 in the city of Topeka, Kansas when racial segregation was considered normal and equal among black and white children in the school system. Most public schools believed in the separate but equal clause that was set into motion by the Plessy V. Ferguson case that went to court in 1896 when Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car (“Brown v. Board”, para.1). Plessy later went to court stating that it violated his constitutional rights with the 14th amendment, which was supposed to give equal rights and protection to all former slaves after the Civil War (“Brown v. Board”, para. 2 ). Most white people in the 1950’s had different attitudes towards race in American society

Board of Education had a lot of opposition from schools in the south more than the schools in the north after the document passed on May 17, 1954 (“our documents”, para.3). The schools in the south did not want to comply with the Supreme Court’s order that all schools will need to be integrated to follow through with the 14th amendment. In fact, in 1955, the Supreme Court had issued that all schools across the United States needed to comply with the dismantling of segregation in the school system. The complete dismantling of segregation within schools caused most white American supporters and opponents of integration to be displeased mainly because integration was being pushed at a fairly quick speed to comply with the 14th amendment. In fact, once the law passed, it caused a lot of resistance to the decision. For example, in Virginia, the Political Organization, Senator Harry Byrd, promoted the opposition to racial integration in public schools called “ Southern Manifesto” which was signed by over one hundred southern congressman in 1956 ( “vahistorical”, para.1). Byrd also started what was known as the “Massive Resistance” which basically was a bunch of laws intended to prevent integration in schools. There was what was called the “pupil placement board” that was used to assign certain colored students to particular schools. In addition, the colored students that opposed going to an integrated school were given grants to pay for their education ( “vahistorical”,para.2). The issue with integration within the public school system continued on well into the mid 1960’s, almost a decade after it was originally passed which cultivated the civil rights