Brown v. The Board Recap

Last week in class, two teams battled the opposing sides of the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education. This is a consolidation case, meaning it was actually five separate cases that were all argued in supreme court together. The cases were Brown itself, which was filed in Topeka, Kansas, Briggs v. Elliott, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Gebhart v. Belton, and Boiling v. Sharpe.  

The case mainly concerned the question: can schools be separate but equal? One side argued that this segregation is acceptable because the education the students are receiving is equal and not separating races would harm both the blacks and whites.The opposing side argued that the segregation creates inferiority, violates the 14th amendment, and does effect the students. The judge (Professor Smith) finally declared a tie.

Newspaper Headline from May 17, 1954

In the real case, however, the court determined that segregation was, in fact, unconstitutional. This overturned the infamous 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson, clearly making it a very important case in America's history. It is truly incredible that this racism was still accepted only half of a century ago. 

For a great overview of the case, Click Here