Oliver Brown's Case: The Brown V. Board Of Education

3045 Words7 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: B. Brown v Board of Education signifcance

For fifty five years, Americans accepted segregation between the African American and the white race. In the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that public facilities that are “separate but equal” do not violate the jurisdiction of the Fourteenth Amendment. Due to this ruling, all spaces including educational facilities in the South were expectedly segregated. However, in 1951, that assumption was uprooted. Oliver Brown, an African American father, attempted to register his daughter Linda in an all-white public school in Topeka, Kansas; expectedly, he and his daughter were turned away. Brown immediately took the matter to court with the assistance of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Rejected by the district court, the case was taken up to the Supreme Court. The attack on segregation was based upon the clauses of the Fifth Amendment including the Due Process Clause. The case also considered the impact of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Around the same time, four other similar lawsuits appealed to the Court, originating from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia. The Court grouped the five cases into one, naming it after Oliver Brown. The Brown v. Board of Education case was then reargued in 1953.1 The Justices agreed to hear both arguments of the case. The NAACP recruited Marshall Thurgood, a future Court Justice, to represent them. On December 8, 1953, Thurgood argued that segregation and inequality were equivalent concepts. The segregation policy allowed by the decision of the Plessy v. Ferguson case was indistinguishable from the Black Codes. The Fourteenth Amendment had stripped the states of power to enforce these Co... ... middle of paper ... ...hen I used to go to Horace Mann School I thought that white people were different. When I saw the colored kids at Horace Mann acting silly or doing something that I didn’t think they should do, I said to myself that they did this just because they were colored. Now... I see that white children do silly things too. Just like there are dumb colored children there are some dumb whites. There are some average colored and there are some average whites, and there are some smart whites and some smart colored. I guess what I have learned is that they are not so different and we aren’t so different.”34 The hardships that she and her classmates went through changed the outlook of all races. Not only did the Nine students inspire future students at Little Rock but those in surrounding districts, those in surrounding states, those across the South, and those across the country.

Show More
Related

  • Equal Protection And Public Education

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1954 court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was unconstitutional and violated the Fourteenth Amendment (Justia, n.d.). During the discussion, the separate but equal ruling in 1896 from Plessy v. Ferguson was found to cause black students to feel inferior because white schools were the superior of the two. Furthermore, the ruling states that black students missed out on opportunities that could be provided under a system of desegregation (Justia, n.d.). So the process of classification and how to balance schools according to race began to take place.

    Read More

  • Brown V. Board Of Education

    1492 Words  | 3 Pages

    The case started with a third-grader named Linda Brown. She was a black girl who lived just seen blocks away from an elementary school for white children. Despite living so close to that particular school, Linda had to walk more than a mile, and through a dangerous railroad switchyard, to get to the black elementary school in which she was enrolled. Oliver Brown, Linda's father tried to get Linda switched to the white school, but the principal of that school refuse to enroll her. After being told that his daughter could not attend the school that was closer to their home and that would be safer for Linda to get to and from, Mr. Brown went to the NAACP for help, and as it turned out, the NAACP had been looking for a case with strong enough merits that it could challenge the issue of segregation in pubic schools. The NAACP found other parents to join the suit and it then filed an injunction seeking to end segregation in the public schools in Kansas (Knappman, 1994, pg 466).

    Read More

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    1307 Words  | 3 Pages

    The case started in Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. Linda's father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school seven blocks from her house, but the principal of the school refused simply because the child was black. Brown went to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help (All Deliberate Speed pg 23). The NAACP was eager to assist the Browns, as it had long wanted to challenge segregation in public schools. The NAACP was looking for a case like this because they figured if they could just expose what had really been going on in "separate but equal society" that the circumstances really were not separate but equal, bur really much more disadvantaged to the colored people, that everything would be changed. The NAACP was hoping that if they could just prove this to society that the case would uplift most of the separate but equal facilities. The hopes of this case were for much more than just the school system, the colored people wanted to get this case to the top to abolish separate but equal.

    Read More

  • Brown V. Board Of Education Case Study

    1664 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Plessy v. Ferguson case which enforced “separate but equal” affected the education system. The NAACP, led by Thurgood Marshall, persuaded the courts to overthrow the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling of 1896, and rule that separate education facilities were unequal under that Equal Protection Clause of the U.S

    Read More

  • Plessy V. Ferguson Case Summary

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    This court case, one that impacted many people and the society at the time, began in Topeka, Kansas and heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was actually two decisions, Brown I and Brown II, and five cases; all centered around racial segregation. The Supreme Court initially did not want to take on the case of racial segregation because of the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. This previous case, between Homer Plessy and John Ferguson, had ruled that separate but equal facilities were constitutional. It set a precedent that the Supreme Court itself did not want to challenge. In summary, this case was established when Plessy, a man with a white appearance but had an African American background, opted for a seat in a “white” section of a car on the

    Read More

  • Brown vs Board of Education Case

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plessy vs Ferguson was a case in which it stated a precedent. In 1892, an African American named Homer Plessy did not give up his seat to a white man("HISTORY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION"). He then got arrested and taken to jail. Plessy than went to the Supreme Court to argue that his Fourteenth Amendment was violated. However, the Supreme Court ruled against Plessy and set the precedent that “separate but equal” is really equal("HISTORY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION") .

    Read More

  • Brown v Board of Education

    2329 Words  | 5 Pages

    On the seventeenth day in May 1954 a decision was made which changed things in the United States dramatically. For millions of black Americans, news of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education meant, at last, that they and their children no longer had to attend separate schools. Brown v. Board of Education was a Supreme Court ruling that changed the life of every American forever.

    Read More

  • Oliver Brown Vs Board Of Education Essay

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Separate is not equal.” In the case of Plessey vs. Ferguson in 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court said racial segregation didn’t violate the Constitution, so racial segregation became legal. In 1954 the case of Oliver Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka this case proved that separate is not equal. Oliver Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was revolutionary to the education system, because colored people and Caucasians had segregated schools. The Caucasians received a better education and the colored people argued that they were separate but not equal. This would pave the way for integrated schools and change the education system as we knew it.

    Read More

  • Dred Scott Decision

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Dred Scott decision stated that all African Americans, free or enslaved, were not considered citizens of the United States. This strengthened the push for anti-slavery in the North. This decision lead to many events in history to help African Americans gain their civil rights. Although this case expanded slavery and the tension between the Northern and Southern states, it was one of the most influential cases in American history. The Plessy v. Ferguson case established the "separate but equal" principle.The Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine required that any separate facilities were constitutional as long as they were equal . This case made segregation legal but, it was overruled in the Brown v. Board of Education case. The Brown v. Board of Education decision was a major legal victory in the Civil Rights Movement. The Brown v. Board of Education case had challenged the principles of "separate but equal" in 1954. This case resulted in the integration of schools and realization that all forms of segregation are wrong.

    Read More

  • Oliver Brown Supreme Court Case Essay

    1720 Words  | 4 Pages

    ABSTRACT: Oliver Brown was born on August 19, 1918 in Springfield, Missouri. Seeing his 8 year old daughter get denied going to a white school motivated him to start a court case and argue about how segregation is breaking the 13th and 14th amendments. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864; the 14th Amendment was passed by the senate on June 17, 1866 saying that anyone born or naturalized in the U. S is a citizen and has equal rights as anyone. Brown did argue this case in the Supreme Court saying segregation should stop; Brown also argued their children should get equal education as white children. The Supreme Court ruled that public school segregation was unconstitutional. Years later racism and

    Read More

  • Brown Vs. Board Of Education Case Study

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    The case Plessy vs Ferguson was one of many before Brown vs Board of education. This case was about separate by equal. In this case, everyone had the same access to education. This was a rule that says black people have the same opportunity to attend school as the same white people, but black stay in black school and white in white school. The case originated in 1892 as a challenge to Louisiana’s Separate Car Act (1890). The law required that all railroads operating in the state provide “equal but separate accommodations” for white and African American passengers and prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned based on their race. White people were perceived to have the most power and authority and they were at the top of the racial hierarchy, while the black people were perceived to be inferior and at the bottom. The white supremacists were against black people at that time and they fought with a massive member of the government. At that time separating by equal didn’t work because being equal in a society involves being treated equal, when in fact they were treated differently. Finally, the court accepted the case Brown vs Board of education and the black people were attending and having the same rights and education as the white people. The doctrine that racial segregation is constitutional if the facilities provided for blacks and whites are

    Read More

  • Supreme Court Cases: The Plessy V. Ferguson Case

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Plessy v. Ferguson case is a cause for the Brown v. Board of Education(BOE) case. The case went all the way to Supreme Court in 1896. The final ruling was if facilities were separate but equal, no rights were violated. This was known as the “separate but equal” doctrine. The decision increased the amount of segregation and discrimination in the US and schools, and other facilities, were separate but so called “equal”. The Brown v. BOE case began as five separate cases. All five cases had a representative from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) and occurred in the US. The five cases lost and appealed to the Supreme Court, the cases joined together to form one case. The case was represented by Thurgood Marshall,

    Read More

  • Essay On Plessy Vs Ferguson

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 to interpret the Fourteenth Amendment in favour of segregation was a clear hindrance to the development of civil rights. This is because it sets a precedent for segregation to be enforced across the country and set a precedent of normalisation of racist views. While it may be argued that such laws existed before then, it cannot be denied that such laws became more rampant and widespread as a result of the ruling. This can be seen clearly in the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1901 which, among many things, instituted separate schools which "shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race" [1]. This particular example

    Read More

  • Segregation Of Schools: Brown V. Board Of Education

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    On one half the white students felt that their freedom was being taken away, the space meant for them were to now be shared with, with people they had never met nor planned too. And on the other side there were the black students who felt they were being punished by the state. Being forced out of their majority black school into a place they felt unwanted and hated. Both sides felt attacked. For example: The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. Many white citizens of Little Rock were angry about the black students integrating into a formally all-white school. On the first day of school, Governor Orval Faubus called in the state National guard to bar the student's entry into the school. However, Eisenhower eventually sent federal troops to help escort the Little a Rock Nine into the school. On the first day of school many of the students experienced: 1) racial slurs, 2) pushed/shoved. 3) yelled at,

    Read More

  • Brown v. Board: Ending School Segregation in America

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this case the supreme court decided that separating children based on their race in public schools was unconstitutional. This case was argued on December 9, 1952 and then once again reargued December 8, 1953. The case was finally decided on May 17, 1954 in an unanimous decision. This was the end to legalized racial segregation in school of the United States. Chief Justice Warren delivered the opinion of the court. This case overruled the “separate but equal” principle set in the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruled that segregation of public school were a violation of the 14th amendment. The 14th amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction

    Read More

More about Oliver Brown's Case: The Brown V. Board Of Education

Open Document