Brown vs. Board of Education
"'The Supreme Court decision [on Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas] is the greatest victory for the Negro people since the Emancipation Proclamation,' Harlem's Amsterdam News exclaimed. It will alleviate troubles in many other fields.' The Chicago Defender added, this means the beginning of the end of the dual society in American life and the system
of segregation which supports it.'"
Oliver Brown, father of Linda Brown decided that his third grade daughter should not have to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard just to get to the bus stop before she could even get to the separate Negro school for her area. He attempted to enroll her in the white public school only three blocks from their home, but her enrollment was denied due to her race. The browns believed this was a violation of their rights, and took their case to the courts. This wasn't the first time that blacks found their constitutional rights violated. After the civil war, laws were passed to continue the separation of blacks and whites throughout the southern states, starting with the Jim Crow laws which officially segregated the whites from the black. It wasn't until 1896 in Plessy vs. Ferguson that black people even began to see equality as an option. Nothing changed in the world until 1954 when the historical ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education that anything changed. Until then, all stores, restaurants, schools and public places were deemed separate but equal' through the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling in 1896. Many cases just like the Brown vs. Board of Education were taken to the Supreme Court together in a class action suite. The world changed when nine justices made the decision to deem segregation in public schools unconstitutional. After the Civil War, white southerners had to figure out ways to continue feeling superior to their former slaves. Anxious to regain power over former slaves, southerners created the Black Codes of 1865. These codes were
Oliver Brown, father of Linda Brown decided that his third grade daughter should not have to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard just to get to the bus stop before she could even get to the separate Negro school for her area. He attempted to enroll her in the white public school only three blocks from their home, but her enrollment was denied due to her race. The browns believed this was a violation of their rights, and took their case to the courts. This wasn't the first time that blacks found their constitutional rights violated. After the civil war, laws were passed to continue the separation of blacks and whites throughout the southern states, starting with the Jim Crow laws which officially segregated the whites from the black. It wasn't until 1896 in Plessy vs. Ferguson that black people even began to see equality as an option. Nothing changed in the world until 1954 when the historical ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education that anything changed. Until then, all stores, restaurants, schools and public places were deemed separate but equal' through the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling in 1896. Many cases just like the Brown vs. Board of Education were taken to the Supreme Court together in a class action suite. The world changed when nine justices made the decision to deem segregation in public schools unconstitutional. After the Civil War, white southerners had to figure out ways to continue feeling superior to their former slaves. Anxious to regain power over former slaves, southerners created the Black Codes of 1865. These codes were
Bibliography: African-American History News Letter. "The Black Codes of 1865". http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa121900a.htm. Accessed: April 7, 2005. Beggs, Gordon. The American University Law Review. "Novel Expert evidence in federal civil rights litigation." 1995. Brown V. Board of Education. "About the Case." www.brownvboard.org Accessed April 8, 2005. Copy write 2004. Patterson, James T. Brown v. Board of Education a civil Rights Milestone and it 's Troubled Legacy. Oxford University Press. New York 2001. 1-3 Robinson, Susan. Gibbs Magazine. "A Day in Black History: Plessy Vs. Ferguson". www.gibbsmagazine.com. Copyright 2005 by Mirror-Gibbs Publications. Accessed April 7, 2005. The Struggle for Black Equality. Harvard Sitkoff: 1993. p. 24.