Brown Vs. Board Of Education

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In 1951, a class action suit was filed against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. The plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their twenty children. The suit called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. Separate elementary schools were operated by the Topeka Board of Education under 1879 Kansas law which permitted (but did not require) districts to maintain separate elementary school facilities for black and white students in twelve communities with populations over 15,000. The Board of Education of Topeka began to end segregation in the Topeka elementary schools in August of 1953, integrating two attendance districts. All the Topeka elementary schools were changed to neighborhood attendance centers in January of 1956, although existing students were allowed to continue attending their prior assigned schools at their option. Then on May 17, 1954 the Warren Court handed down a 9-0 decision which stated, in no uncertain terms that "separate facilities are inherently unequal". Brown did not, however, result in the immediate desegregation of America's public schools, nor did it mandate desegregation of public accommodations, such as restaurants or bathrooms, that were owned by private parties, which would not be accomplished until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, it was a giant step forwards for the civil rights movement. Many articles have been written on the case of Brown vs. Board of Education since it occurred, and many opinions have been brought to the public's attention. The opinions of the African American authors seem to be slightly different than the white author. The language that the black authors use is slightly more hostile and a little more worried about America's integration of schools even thirty years after this event took place. The white author tends to think that integration was seen more in schools in the years after this case. Theses authors show that the school system is improving and only minor changes need to be made. The language used in the black print articles and the mainstream articles is similar, but from a black author's perspective, integration is still a major issue that needs to be worked on. Mainstream media is everywhere; newspapers, magazines, TV, things we see on an every day basis. The language and the perception of the events going on in the world have a great influence on the way that the general public sees the event.

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