Stuff

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

The Supreme Court case of Brown vs. The Board of Education dealt with the issue of segregation in schools during the mid 1950's. At this time Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. During the time of the Brown vs. The Board of Education there was a lot of racial discrimination. From businesses to Public Parks, every place you would go there would be a place for whites, which was extremely well kept, and then there was a place for blacks, which was run down. Segregation was legal as along as both facilities were of equal value, but this never was enforced that much. This type of segregation was called de jure segregation meaning racial separation forced by specific laws. This case wasn't the only case of segregation in schools. In some of the Southern States it was illegal to teach any Negro children, even though most of the negro population in the south was illiterate. This case was brought to the Supreme Court as a combination of four other cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, and from the District of Columbia, with a total of nearly 200 plaintiffs. These five cases were: Belton vs. Gebhardt (Delaware), Brown vs. Board of Education (Kansas), Briggs vs. Elliot (South Carolina), Davis vs. Prince Edwards County School Board (Virginia), and Bolling vs. Sharpe (District of Columbia). In all of these cases the legal representatives sought out help from the local courts for the admission of Negroes into public schools. In each of these cases the plaintiff argued that the schools that were suppose to be equal were not equal and argued that the segregation laws deprive some from the equal protection of the law which was stated under the Fourth Amendment. In the Delaware case of Gebhart vs. Belton the plaintiffs were of elementary and high school aged. The Chancellor gave the judgment for the plaintiffs and ordered their immediate admission to schools that previously only allowed white children. This was on the grounds that the Negro schools were inferior with respect to teacher training, pupil-teacher ratio, extracurricular activities, physical plant, and the time and distance involved in travel. In the case of Briggs vs. Elliot (South Carolina) there plaintiffs were Negro children of both elementary and High School age which both residing in the county of Clarendon. The Court ruled that the "Negro schools were inferior to the white schools" and they ordered the defendants to "equalize the facilities" of Negro schools immediately. However the Court denied the Plaintiffs admission to the white schools during the equalization program. In the Virginia Case of Briggs vs. Elliott, the plaintiffs were of High School age in the Prince Edward County. The Court denied the request relief and found the Negro schools to be inferior in Physical plant, curricula and transportation. The Court ordered the defendants to provide substantially equal curricula and transportation and to "proceed with all reasonable diligence and dispatch to remove" the inequality in physical plant. The Court also denied the plaintiffs admission to the white public schools during the equalization program. In the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas the defendants were two Negro children of elementary school age. The three-judge District Court found that segregation

...