Brown Vs Board Of Education Research Paper

Breaking racial Barriers with Brown vs. Board of Education

Imagine this, your seven year old daughter has to walk 1 mile to her school bus stop, when there is another school just 7 blocks away. She has to travel so far to go to school because its against the law for her to go to a school with a race other than her own. The court case that changed this insane arrangement was Brown vs. Board of Education. Brown vs. Board of education was 5 court cases challenging racial segregation in schools. The court cases took place in Kansas, Washington D.C, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. Brown vs Board of Education was one of the most important court cases in American history because it was the first major Supreme Court that ruled against segregation.

Board of Education showed that the government had African American’s backs for one of the first times in American history. Education to all American Citizens is a right, and is not something for only a select few. “Where a State has undertaken to provide an opportunity for an education in its public schools, such an opportunity is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.” (Brown, “Government” P. 493. ) Brown vs. Board of Education Stated that African American students should have equal education in schools. Also it said that a good education doesn’t only apply to white students. Almost all the cases before Brown vs. Board of Education education enforced segregation between blacks and whites. The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson was a prime example of America enforcing segregation. “By a 7-1 vote, the Court said that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between the two races did not conflict with the 13th Amendment forbidding involuntary servitude, nor did it tend to reestablish such a condition.”(Plessy, “History.com Staff.” ) Before Brown v. Board of education the government supported segregation with the term “separate but equal”. 60 years later with Brown v Board of Education the government said separate is not equal. 60 years before Brown v. Board there was a major court case about a black man sitting in a “whites only” train car, so much progress was made in only 60

Board had such a huge impact that only two decades after so much progress was made. 20 years after Brown v. Board of Education there was an increase of diversity in schools. “The number of black students attending majority-white schools in the South rose from 2% in the mid-1960s to nearly 45% in the late 1980s, the peak of school integration” ( Anonymous “Brown”) Brown v. Board of Education only took 20 years to start showing a lot of change in schools. 20 years was an amazing short amount of time. Brown v. Board showed that children were and still are our future and raising them without segregation changed the way they thought. “Half-century since Brown has been a series of gains and losses, from segregation to integration and on to a new kind of segregation. Other movements — feminism, the fights for other minority rights, gay rights, advocacy by and on behalf of people with disabilities — were aided, bolstered and fueled by Brown.” ( Anonymous “Brown”) By letting children experience diversity it opened their minds to change. The ingenious thing about Brown v. Board of Education is that children ultimately decide whether or not it was a good court decision. Brown vs. Board created equality for African Americans to go to better schools and have the same chance at education as white