Parties: In this case, the plaintiffs are African American children however the representative plaintiff is Brown and the defendants are Board of Education of Topeka (Kansas).
Statement of Facts: Different cases from the States of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware were presented to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding similar legal questions based on a common ideology of “separate but equal.” In each of these states minor aged African Americans request for the support of the courts to gain unsegregated entrance to their public school. In each individual case, the plaintiff had been denied acceptance to school in their community attended by the …show more content…
Thus, they are not being given the equal protection of the laws. They claimed that Topeka’s racial segregation chiefly in the educational system violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. The federal district court in which the case was rejected claimed that separate public schools are equal such that they can be considered constitutional. However, the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court under the same claims by the …show more content…
Supreme Court discussed the conditions surrounding the implementation of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. It argued about the past practices of racial segregation and views of the proponents and opponents of the Amendment when drafted by Congress were rather different therefore, the question presented before the Court should not be determined by the circumstances in which it was adopted. Furthermore, the Court asserted that the status of public education has changed from the time the Amendment was written. At the time, in the South, the movement supporting free education had not been initiated. White children were mostly educated in privately while education in the African American community was absent. In some states, education of African Americans was illegal thus leaving them illiterate. Even in the North, although during the Amendment it had advanced more than the South was still underdeveloped. Therefore, it is not unexpected that there is limited history on the Fourteenth Amendment and its relation to education. However, African Americans have now achieved success in the fields of sciences, arts, business and professionally. Furthermore, the Court stated that education has become a vital part of state and local governments. It has become an essential part of public responsibilities, good citizenship, cultural values and preparation for professional training. In this perspective, it may be possible that any child denied the opportunity of an equal