The prosecution and defense of Brown v. The Board of Education is known for their perspectives on how schools for Black children were not equal to the white schools, and that segregation violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The Brown v. The Board of Education case was a Supreme Court case stating that laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. This case was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate but equal” education and other services were not in fact equal.
The Prosecution, Brown and his attorneys claimed that segregation in any school was harmful. Stating that the segregation in schools based on race would result in lowered self esteem, uneducated individuals, and would make African-Americans socially and mentally inferior to other races. Warren believes that “Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive
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Kluger writes that “Plessy v. Ferguson, which had upheld the concept and practice of state-endorsed racial discrimination-Jim Crow- the chimera of separate but equal public accommodations and institutions for blacks and whites.” (Kluger 1). Plessy states there were no multicultural schools in certain states. Attorneys for the Board of Education had to argue with this because it was true, but argued that the schools were equal in every way. They claimed the amount of funding, teachers, supplies, classes, courses and activities all depended on where the students went. The Attorneys also stated that in some states minority schools got better funding than white schools. Their claim was that segregation in schools did not harm the children because of these