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Education in Topeka Schools

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Throughout the early 1950s, racial segregation in public schools was standard across the United States. Despite the given that all schools were expected to be equal, many of the black schools were far more inferior to those that were white. Segregation of white and black children in public schools disallowed black children equal protection of the laws that were guaranteed by the United States Constitution. According to Chief Justice Earl Warren, it also was believed to have divested the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities. According to the Court, “Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system” (Cozzens, 1998).

The Fourteenth Amendment in the United States Constitution discusses various topics on the rights of citizens. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” United States Constitution [United States Government]: N.P.,N.D. Segregation violates the Fourteenth Amendment because the amendment states that a State along with its government is forbidden to discriminate against citizens of the United States. The Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education goes against the Fourteenth Amendment because of it's involvement with segregation. Therefore, the Fourteenth Amendment most certainly has a strong intended effect on public education, which then further leads to the case Brown v. Board of Education.

The case began when a black minister named Oliver Brown from Topeka, Kansas, sued the local school board for refusing the admission of his daughter, Linda, because of her race. Linda Brown was an eight year-old African American student who had to cross Topeka, Kansas to attend grade school, while her white friends were able to attend the public school only a few blocks away. The Board of Education of Topeka was segregated on race. Oliver Brown went to the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) named McKinley Burnett, and asked him for help. The NAACP was willing to support the Browns because the association had wanted to challenge segregation in public schools for many years prior to this case. In 1951, along with other black parents, Brown convinced the NAACP to request an injunction that would forbid all segregation of Topeka's public schools. This request for an injunction took action immediately and eventually put the court in a complicated situation. At first, the judges agreed with Brown; however, they soon after took the side of the Board of Education because of the precedent of the Plessy v. Ferguson case. Brown and the NAACP petitioned to the Supreme Court on October 1, 1951, and the case was evidently combined with other cases that dealt with the issues of school segregation in South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. “The Court had to make its decision based not on whether or not the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment had desegregated schools in mind when they wrote the amendment in 1868, but based on whether or not desegregated schools deprived black children of equal protection of the law when the case was decided, in 1854” (Cozzens, 1998).

Oliver Brown's arguments were understandable in that he believed that racial segregation in public schools favored one group exclusively on the basis of race, which is unconstitutional. However, the Board of Education of Topeka argued back by saying that in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution it states that people should be treated equally, which doesn't necessarily mean that people should be treated the same. The Board also argued that the United States District Court found that the facilities provided for the black children in Topeka were equal to the facilities provided for the white children in Topeka. In addition, Brown argued that racial segregation in public schools places a prominent inferiority on the black students. He fought by proving that the United States District also found that segregation actually did have negative effects on black children. Brown also believed that segregation in public schools could ultimately lead to segregation within neighborhoods and local areas, therefore, introducing a serious issue to the local government in order to deal with such changes in neighborhoods. The Board of Education also argued by stating, “...segregated schools simply prepared black children for the segregation they would face during adulthood” (Cozzens, 1998).

Under the “separate but equal” doctrine, this understanding of racial segregation was acceptable and in fact legal. The “separate but equal” doctrine was established in 1896 in the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson case. This concept stated that separate public facilities of equal quality do not defy the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. As a result of this case, the court came to the realization that schools were substantially equal with respect to certain aspects such as buildings, transportation, curricula, and education qualifications of the teachers. The lower courts agreed with the school system that if the facilities were equal, the child was being treated equally with whites as given by the Fourteenth Amendment.

John W. Davis was an eighty-year-old corporation lawyer and the 1924 presidential candidate of the Democratic Party who presented the case for the segregationists. His argue was that education was a matter reserved to the states and that the federal government lacked jurisdiction over the public school system. The United States Constitution required that all United States citizens must receive equal treatment; however, he argued that it did not specifically indicate that these citizens had to have access to identical institutions. David felt that segregation was a social institution outside the extent of federal authority, and that the Plessy v. Ferguson decision should not be disturbed.

On the other hand, Thurgood Marshall was a black lawyer who was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's most important leader, also called “Mr. Civil Rights”. (Lawson, Page 33). Marshall argued that the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery, awarded United States citizenship of all blacks. He also showed through experiment that Negro schools did not receive financial support from the states equal to the financial support given to white schools. Therefore, Negro children received an education which was significantly inferior to that of white children. He called it a clear violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and he also expressed hope that the Court would resolve the situation by ordering the integration of all school systems in the United States. He was not only interested in that the quality of education in the black schools was inferior to that in the white schools, but also that these so-called separate but equal schools were unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. Marshall's efforts were successful in forcing state universities in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas to accept black students. However, he did not have any success when it came to persuading public schools below the college and university level to accept black students. Therefore, “Finally, Marshall decided to wage a full-scale frontal attack in the nation's courts against segregated public schools” (Lawson, Page 34). Marshall presented a vast amount of evidence in which his staff had gathered to make the damage done to the blacks clearer as a result of the “separate but equal” rule. In one of his briefs Marshall states, “The evidence makes it clear that it was the intent of the proponents of the Fourteenth Amendment that it could of its own force prohibit all state action based upon race or color and all segregation in public education...any delay in executing the judgment of the Court would involve insurmountable difficulties, so that the plaintiff in question should be admitted at once without distinctions of race or color to the school of their choice” (Lawson, Page 35).

The Court took many weeks to study Marshall's material, but on May 17, 1954, it delivered its unanimous decision. The Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson for public education, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and required the desegregation of schools across the United States of America. The Court accepted the NAACP's controversy that segregated education had a detrimental effect upon Negro children. It also affirmed that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and are consequently in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. On May 31, 1955, the Supreme Court ordered desegregation to finally take place in order to give the nation an opportunity to adjust to the psychological impact of its order. This decision did indeed order the federal circuit courts to oversee the desegregation process and help work out integration formulas which would be less disruptive in its social effects.

The Brown v. Board of Education case signaled the end of “de jure” segregation in the United States, which is, segregation of public places that is mandated by law. Once the Brown decision was handed down, the African American community, along with white Americans as well, placed plenty of pressure on the legal and political system to bring an end to state-supported segregation in all public facilities within twenty years through the Civil Rights Movement. The nation tried extremely hard and did all it could for this great conversion including coping with riots, assassinations, and additional government programs in order to enforce the Court's decision including busing and affirmative action. Americans soon found out that Congress and the Courts were clearly unable to change the attitudes of Americans in respect to racism. America has most certainly moved toward the principles of equality and justice; however, the inner life of the nation is still resistant to change. “...Human blood may stain Southern soil in many places because of this decision but the dark red stains of that blood will be on the marble steps of the United States Supreme Court building” (Daily News, 1954). It is evident that racism and violence have not been completely eliminated since the Brown decision; in fact, another type of segregation can still be seen in many schools and neighborhoods today. This type of segregation is known as "de facto" segregation, which results from prejudices and stereotypes that separate certain communities with others. However, “de facto” segregation was the Court's command in Brown v. Board of Education which forced Americans to face each other and determine if they were willing to live up to the standards that are written in the United States Constitution.

Brown v. Board of Education is considered the most important judicial decision of the twentieth century because it began a social revolution. “The impact of Brown and other Desegregation Cases on American constitutional law and society extended far beyond matters of race” (Cox, Page 258). Brown v. Board of Education was not simply about children and education. The laws and policies struck down by this court decision were products of the human tendencies to prejudge, discriminate against, and stereotype other people by their ethnic, religious, physical, or cultural characteristics. Ending this behavior as a legal practice caused far reaching social and ideological propositions, which continue to be felt throughout the country. The Brown decision inspired and incited human rights struggles across the country and around the world and brought this country just one step closer to living up to its democratic ideas. Although the decision brought many new and exciting ways of living to the nation, discrimination still prominently occurs today and something should be accomplished to overcome it once and for all. “Segregation is a stain on our nation's soul, there's no other way to describe it. It represents one of the lowest moments in our nation's history and we can never forget that.” (Trent Lott)

Works Cited

• Cox, Archibald. The Court and the Constitution. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.
• Lawson, Don. Landmark Supreme Court Cases. New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 1987.
• http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html

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