When Did Brown v Board of Education Happen?
When Did Brown v Board of Education Happen? Learn more about this landmark case by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case established that segregated public schools were unconstitutional and did not offer equal education. Despite this ruling, segregated schools continued to exist. But how did Brown v Board of Education change the civil rights movement? Here are a few things to know. The following article discusses the case’s impact on civil rights and NAACP lawsuits.
Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education
The case of Brown v. Board of Education was decided on a unanimous vote of the Supreme Court. The case had drawn great controversy because of the widespread predictions that the Court would rule in a divided manner. The majority’s decision was a victory for desegregation, but there was still room for a dissent. Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter, who prepared the original draft of the opinion, reargued it before the Court. He wanted to ensure that the majority opinion had a consensus of opinion, and his endorsement of the decision reflected this consensus. Justices believed that a brownie decree should provide flexibility in implementation and appeal to established principles, and suggest basic ground rules for lower courts.
The case had intellectual roots tied to scientific racism of the time. Many whites at the time supported the ruling, likely due to the beliefs that these scientific racists held. The Supreme Court in Brown v Board of Education, however, rejected those beliefs and cited social science research to support their decision. This decision has led to a wide range of educational policies. For example, segregation in public schools has been illegal in Delaware for a long time, but it is still an unjust practice.
NAACP lawsuits
Two decades after the Brown v Board of Education case, the NAACP continued to fight for equal educational opportunities for black students. In 1951, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sought to obtain twenty local residents’ signatures on a petition for equal education. This petition would later become the lawsuit in question. The plaintiff, Harry Briggs, was among those who signed the petition. After the lawsuit was filed, attorney Robert Carter conferred with Columbia University Psychologist Otto Klineberg, known for his research on the IQ levels of black children. The two sought each other’s advice on utilizing social science testimony as a part of the case. Klineberg recommended that Kenneth Clark be the Legal Defense Fund’s principal expert witness.
After the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP filed several lawsuits in response to the school segregation in the United States. These lawsuits were consolidated under the name Brown v. Board of Education. In the Briggs case, the NAACP sued the Clarendon County, SC school board for not desegregating the school. The court ruled in favor of the NAACP and ordered equal educational opportunity for Black and white children.
Reargument in the case
The Supreme Court heard arguments on the landmark Brown v Board of Education case in 1954. Chief Justice Vinson had passed away in 1953, and his replacement, Earl Warren, had been selected as the next Chief Justice. Arguments centered around the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, whether it meant to prohibit segregation in public schools when ratified, and the future interpretation of the Amendment. Though the Supreme Court did not issue a judgment on the case, the court did send counsel to briefs on a list of five questions to discuss.
The court decided in favor of the plaintiffs, who argued that segregated schools were detrimental to black children. The plaintiffs argued that the legal segregation facilitated an unequal education and caused low self-esteem among minority students. The attorneys for Linda Brown’s family argued that this doctrine violated the Plessy standards. A majority of the court agreed, but the justices based their decision on the historical evidence that was available.
Impact on civil rights movement
In 1964, the United States Supreme Court decided in Brown v. Board of Education, an important case in the civil rights movement. The case led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, which would further advance the goal of racial equality in the country. In 1976, the Supreme Court issued the Runyon v. McCrary decision, ruling that private, nonsectarian schools were breaking federal laws by discriminating against children on the basis of race.
Although the ruling overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, it did not enact its mandate on desegregation. The Supreme Court did not set a firm deadline, but it made it clear that public schools must desegregate “with deliberate speed.” Despite this, desegregation continued to linger, and more school districts are still struggling to comply with the ruling.
Impact on other public facilities
In 1956, Oliver Brown, an African-American resident of Topeka, Kansas, was denied admission to the city’s elementary school due to her race. Instead, she had to ride a bus to a segregated black school. After she was turned down, her parents filed a class-action lawsuit against the city’s Board of Education. They argued that the Board of Education’s segregation policies violated the U.S. Constitution. A special three-judge court based its ruling on Plessy v. Ferguson and the doctrine of “separate but equal.”
In addition to Brown, the case was the result of several other lawsuits. In one, the NAACP organized a coordinated group of five lawsuits against the school district. These lawsuits were joined by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In these cases, the NAACP sought to prevent segregation in schools and encouraged African-American parents to send their children to all-white schools. The five plaintiffs filed their suits in the same year as the case.
When Did Brown v Board of Education Happen? Learn more about this landmark case by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case established that segregated public schools were unconstitutional and did not offer equal education. Despite this ruling, segregated schools continued to exist. But how did Brown v Board of Education change the civil rights movement?…