Brown vs. Board of Ed is Decided

From History.com:

In a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court hands down an unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ruling that racial segregation in public educational facilities is unconstitutional. The historic decision, which brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, specifically dealt with Linda Brown, a young African American girl who had been denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" accommodations in railroad cars conformed to the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. That ruling was used to justify segregating all public facilities, including elementary schools. However, in the case of Linda Brown, the white school she attempted to attend was far superior to her black alternative and miles closer to her home. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took up Linda's cause, and in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka reached the Supreme Court. African American lawyer (and future Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall led Brown's legal team, and on May 17, 1954, the high court handed down its decision.

In an opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the nation's highest court ruled that not only was the "separate but equal" doctrine unconstitutional in Linda's case, it was unconstitutional in all cases because educational segregation stamped an inherent badge of inferiority on African American students. A year later, after hearing arguments on the implementation of their ruling, the Supreme Court published guidelines requiring public school systems to integrate "with all deliberate speed."

The Brown v. Board of Education decision served to greatly motivate the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately led to the abolishment of racial segregation in all public facilities and accommodations.


Here is a clip from a PBS documentary on the Supreme Court and the Brown vs. Board of Education decision:





[Image via MyWonderfulWorld]

Sometimes We Destroy Our History

Here is a great article from the NY Times about the ongoing movement to preserve segregated black schoolhouses in the south. Many schools were constructed from funds raised by the president of Sears, Julius Rosenwald, at the urging of Booker T. Washington. The schools were in keeping with the “separate but equal” standards of the day, which relegated black education to primitive standards at best.

Many of these buildings were saved from demolition at the urging of historians and other preservationists who recognize the historical importance of the structures in telling the history of civil rights. There have been countless books written about pre-civil rights education in the south, but not everyone will read a book. As a former attendee of one of the schools so aptly stated, “Sometimes we destroy our history…You can tell kids about it, but they appreciate it better when they see it.”

[Image via MarkFoxjr]