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 You Have to Sit Down to Stand Up

To kick off a month in which we remember black history, we would be remiss in neglecting the importance of sit-ins to the civil rights movement. Sit-ins motivated activists, young people in particular, to take up the cause for equal rights by staging sit -ins at restaurants that only offered segregated service. Under the Jim Crow laws in the south, black and whites were expected to use different restrooms, water fountains, schools, and even be served at separate counters at restaurants (among countless other indignities). Sick of being segregated to lesser standards because of the color of their skin, African-American students in the south decided to combat these practices through peaceful protest.

On February 1, 1960, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond (all freshmen at North Carolina A&T University) took seats at the lunch counter of a F.W. Woolworth’s in Greensboro, N.C. and requested service. The waitress refused their request because of their race. Nonetheless, the four sat steadfast until the close of the store. The next day, the four returned with about 25 more protestors. The sit-in inspired other similar sit-ins across the state, and eventually, throughout the south. By that July (and after an estimated loss of $200,000 worth of business), Woolworth’s integrated all of its stores and allowed blacks to be served at lunch counters.

Today, the site of the first sit-in at the Greensboro, N.C. Woolworth’s was re-opened as an international civil rights museum. Here is a video of the opening along with interviews of the four participants of the February 1^st sit-in.

For more information, please visit the Civil Rights Movement Veterans’ timeline. 

[Image via americanhistory]

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

In remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights he advocated for, here is his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in its entirety.

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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]

“I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen” – Rosa Parks Arrested

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in the front section of a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. This was an age in which segregation was the watchword of the south. Under the guise of “separate but equal,” blacks and whites were expected to use separate restrooms, buses, and lunch counters while attending different schools. By refusing to forfeit her seat to a white man, Rosa Parks helped set off a bus boycott that helped to fuel the civil rights movement of the late 1950s, 1960s and beyond. Dr. Martin Luther King led the bus boycott that protested racial segregation through non-violent means. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began four days after Rosa Park’s arrest and lasted for 381 days. As a result of their non-violent actions, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks have taken their place in the pantheon of American advocates for not only human equality, but human dignity as well.

In 1987, Rosa Parks founded the Rosa & Raymond Institute for Self Development which is devoted to motivating the youth to reach their highest potential. Even though she passed away in 2005, her work lives on through her foundation and in the lives of those she has inspired.

[Image via disarminginjustice and 37days]

“I Have a Dream” – the 46th Anniversary of the March on Washington

On August 28, 1963, over 200,000 civil rights demonstrators marched on Washington, D.C in what was termed the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” At an assembly at the Lincoln Memorial, a sea of marchers called on President John F. Kennedy to provide equal rights to African Americans in various areas of American life that were plagued by racial disparity, including housing, education and employment opportunities. Probably the most famous speaker that day to add his voice to the call for change was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In the wake of our 24/7 media age in which our televisions, radios and computers are inundated with political bluster of innumerable persuasions and throwaway lines, it is truly awesome to take a moment and reflect on words that grow only more inspiring with each repetition. With his voice rising and falling from the palace of justice to the valley of despair, Dr. King made a speech that would cause even the most secular humanists to follow him to the mountaintop. Cloaked in biblical metaphors of hope and frank images of the injustices of African American life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of an idea almost as old as America itself, the idea of the American dream. Has King’s dream for America come to pass? Does America still have a long way to go in terms of its race relations? Surely this is something we might reflect on today.

Here in its entirety is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech:

[Image via Mentalfloss]