Supreme Court Cases: Brown V. Board Of Education

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision that would irrevocably change the nature of race relations in America (Brown v. Board of Education). This landmark Supreme Court case was Brown V. Board of Education. This decision that held that segregation in public schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was long over due, to put it mildly (Brown v Board of Education). In order to prove that without the Brown decision the Civil Rights movement would not have been as effective, I will illustrate the pre-Brown court case social and political conditions of African Americans that cemented the need for change, I will explore the legal documents and transcripts of the case, and I will

Board of Education was actually the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the United States Supreme Court concerning the same issue of segregation in public schools (Supreme Court Landmarks). These cases were 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 (History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment). While the specifics of each case were different, the main issue involved the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools. When the cases went before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court consolidated all of the cases under one name, Brown v. Board of Education (History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment). Thurgood Marshall personally argued the case on behalf of the plaintiffs and relied on legal arguments, historical evidence, and psychological studies to make his case (Separate But Equal). Although he raised a variety of legal issues, the most common one was that separate school systems for blacks and whites were inherently unequal, and thus violated the "equal protection clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment). Marshall argued that in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court had misinterpreted the “equal protection clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment, meaning that equal protection

While Brown V. Board of Education was being argued in front the Supreme Court, the United States was at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union (The Cold War). During this time, U.S. officials, including the Supreme Court Justices, were definitely aware of the negative impact that segregation and racism played on America’s international image (The Global Impact of Brown v. Board of Education). On May 14, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the opinion of the Court, stating that "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. . ." (History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment). The Court expected opposition to its ruling, particularly in the South, and did not immediately try to give direction for the implementation of its ruling (Brown v. Board of Education). Rather, it asked the attorney generals to submit plans for how to proceed with desegregation, which would gradually begin (Separate but