The Brown v The Board of Topeka Kansas was a milestone decision by the United States Supreme Court that ruled that separation of children in public schools based on their race was unconstitutional. The ruling marked the end of legal racial segregation in U.S. schools hence overruling a similar case in 1896 that involved Plessy v. Ferguson that advocated for a ‘separate but equal principle.' The discussion will analyze the process of deciding the Brown v Board of Topeka Kansas ruling using fully precedent and strategies.
According to Brown-Jeffy (2010), the Supreme Court on May 17, 1954, delivered a unanimous ruling in the Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case stating that the segregation in the public schools was against the principles of the 14th amendment. The Supreme Court decision helped to break the idea of state-sponsored segregation hence giving the American civil rights movement a landmark victory. The decision was also important in ending the federal tolerance of racial segregation.
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The 1986 Plessy v. Ferguson decision had provisions that advocated for ‘separate but equal’ usage of public facilities such as public schools in the U.S. In addition, the decision claimed that the separate educational facilities were inherently unequal. Katz and Taylor (2013) pointed out that the decision held that segregated public facilities were constitutional because the black and the white facilities were equal to each other. The court argued that the ‘separate but equal’ principle on education and other facilities such as railroad cars conformed to the 14 th Amendment’s provisions on equal protection. Therefore, the decision was used to justify various forms of segregation in all public facilities, including the schools.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the mid-1930s challenged the various aspects of the school segregation principle in a series of court cases. The courts' ruling, however, was based on the fact that the school districts had a duty to improve their black students’ schools. However, the NAACP still challenged the constitutionality of the segregation decision. By the 1950s, the NAACP presented lawyers that brought a lawsuit action on behalf the black children who lived in Kansas, Virginia, Delaware, etc. The legal battle was aimed at compelling school districts to allow black students to attend white public schools.
The Brown V. Board of Topeka Kansas was a case filed against Topeka, Kansas School by Oliver Brown. Brown was one of the parents of a child who was denied access to Topeka White School. According to Kluger (2011), Brown in his case argued that the racial segregation was against the equal protection provisions of the 14 th Amendment clause because the black and the white schools were not equal and they would never be equal to each other. However, the Federal District Courts dismissed Brown's claim asserting that under the Plessy doctrine, segregated public schools were substantially equal enough to the white schools and therefore nothing was unconstitutional. With minimal success, Brown appealed the case to the Supreme Court. The court in their ruling that was read by Chief Justice Earl Warren cited that the 14th Amendment guaranteed equal education to all. It also added that public education was an essential component of every citizen’s public life and therefore any citizen denied good education was unlikely to succeed in life.
In conclusion, the Brown v. Board of Education case was a major victory for the American democracy as it championed for equality in education. In summary, the decision demanded that because education is a basic right, it should be afforded equally to both blacks and whites. The decision also appreciated the 14 th amendment which states that nobody must be denied equal protection under the law as asserted by Aynes (2009). Therefore, with regards to education, both blacks and whites must be protected equally by the law.
References
Aynes, R. L. (2009). The 39th Congress (1865-1867) and the 14th Amendment: Some Preliminary Perspectives. Akron Law Publications.
Brown-Jeffy, S. L. (2010). Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas (and Brown II). Kofi Lomotey (2010, zerk.): Encyclopedia of African American Education .
Katz, P. A., & Taylor, D. A. (Eds.). (2013). Eliminating racism: Profiles in controversy . Springer Science & Business Media.
Kluger, R. (2011). Simple justice: The history of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's struggle for equality . Vintage.
