Brown Vs Board Of Education In The 1950's

In the 1950’s segregation was a major issue throughout all facets of society in the United States. One major part of society which was majorly affected by segregation was education. The only schools African Americans were allowed to go to were all black and the conditions were horrible. Some families tried enrolling their children in the public white schools and all were rejected. One brave family fought against the unfair segregation their child was facing and petitioned it to the court; this was known as the Brown vs Board of Education case. This case was mixed together with a few other cases and helped to repeal an original pro-segregation law brought on through the Plessy vs Ferguson case. Overall, the Brown vs. Board of Education

This occurrence was mainly due to the introduction of Jim Crow laws in the 1890’s which separated African Americans from white people in all aspects of daily life. Black people were constantly reminded of the perception that white people were superior through signs which stated “Whites Only” or “Colored”. On trains, buses, restrooms, drinking fountains, and in schools black people were forced to live in completely separate facilities ("Jim Crow," n.d.). These facilities were supposedly equal as to follow the fourteenth amendment which stated “No state shall deny...any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of law”. However, more often than not, this was not the case and the black facilities were made quite inferiorly to the white facilities if they existed at all (Evans-Marshall, 2006). These laws painfully affected the black community as

[Page 49]). Through this argument they fought to prove that segregation is unconstitutional and that it harms the way that children view themselves because it teaches them they are inferior (Evans-Marshall, 2006). In this case, the NAACP used different strategies to portray this. One strategy they used was citing a case study on the effect of segregation in little girls known as the ‘Doll Test’. This study was performed by doctor Kenneth Clark in (include place and date). In this study Clark would show young African American children two dolls, one white and one black, and ask them a series of questions regarding the dolls. Some of these questions included which doll appeared ‘nice’ and which doll appeared ‘mean’ and which doll they felt they resembled most. All of the children chose the white doll as the ‘nice’ one and claimed they felt most like the white doll as well. Once Clark disagreed with the child stating that they actually appeared more similar to the black doll, he or she would become severely upset and throw a tantrum. This test proved how the segregation and differential treatment of African Americans was causing children to associate negative connotations with black people and positive ones white white people (Altman, 2000, p.