Integration,+1954+Brown+Vs.+Board+of+Education

A large focus of the Civil Rights Movement was education. Many African Americans believed that the right to a better education would allow for better jobs and more opportunities. They finally got that right in the year of 1954.

The 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Case argued that racial segregation in public schools violated the laws of the constitution. Eventually on May 17, 1954, the case won, gaining a unanimous vote from the U.S. Supreme Court. The court declared that racial segregation in schools did specifically infringe the Fourteenth Amendment, which stated that no state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction. They also decided that separate schools were unequal. The schools made for "whites" were considerably cleaner, had more teachers, more money, and better equipment than the "colored" schools. This court case reversed an earlier Supreme Court case (Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896), which stated that "separate but equal" schools were permitted. The 1954 Brown Board of Education case was limited only to public schools, however, it was implied that segregation was not to be permitted in any schools at any future time.

Linda Brown, a African American third grader from Topeka, Kansas, was forced to walk a mile to reach her “colored” elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only a couple of blocks away. When the principal of the white school refused to enroll Linda in the school, her father, Oliver Brown, called on the help of McKinley Burnett, head of Topeka’s branch of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). They gained more support from other African American parents, and presented their predicament as a single, consolidated case to the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

The case was heard from June 25-26, 1951. The NAACP argued that African American children were being told they were inferior by segregation of schools. The Board of Education defended itself with the claims that segregated schools merely helped prepare children for segregation in adulthood. They also argued that great African Americans, such as Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglas, had come out of segregated schools proving segregated schools were not detrimental to black children’s learning.

While the court did agree that segregated schools were harmful to African American children, they ruled in favor of the Board because of a recent, similar case, Plessy vs Ferguson, in which the court ruled separate and equal school systems were allowed. Undeterred, Brown and the NAACP appealed to the Supreme Court on October 1, 1951. The case was first heard on December 9, 1952, but the Supreme Court failed to reach a decision. On the second hearing of the case, from December 7-8, 1953, the Court requested that the Fourteenth Amendment be discussed between the two sides. After deciding that segregated schools did provide African American children unequal education opportunities, the Court ruled unanimously that segregation in schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment and was unconstitutional.

The 1954 case allowed African Americans to attend "white" schools, yet it took many more years for the schools to actually be desegregated. In 1957, three years after the Supreme Court gave all the right to an equal education, most schools were still not integrated, especially in the south. That was the year of the Little Rock Nine. The Little Rock Nine were pioneers of the Civil Rights Era. They were some of the first, and by far the most famous, students to actually join the "white" schools. These nine students from Little Rock, Arkansas, had to face violent protestors and in the end only got in to the school with the help of the U.S. Army. Even the Arkansas governor was against the integration of Little Rock High, and had to be overruled by the President. Everyday for the rest of the year, these nine students had to be escorted be Army troops from class to class. But they were undeterred, and never strayed from their cause. These nine teenagers are a large part of the reason that our own schools are now filled with students of every color and of every race.

Even though this nation may not be perfect, and there are still some people that are against integration, that are against all people being equal, these brave men and women have helped us take a large step towards the better.

Brown vs. Board of Education Source 1 Brown vs. Board of Education Source 2 Little Rock Nine Source 1