Brown V. Board Of Education Case Analysis

The Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case that was brought up to the United States Supreme Court was one of the most famous cases to make it to the court. This case, once decided, completely changed how schools functioned and how the segregation system worked around the country. Before this case, segregation was legal in any, and all schools, but after the case, every single school in the country was to be desegregated. The decision was 9-0, in favor of Brown. The question that needs to be answered is whether or not the 9-0 decision was based on legal analysis, but more off of moral analysis (what’s right vs. what’s wrong). The arguments that the Board of Education presented during their oral arguments were very strong, which makes one question,

The only evidence-based data that was presented before the court were the results of Clark Doll Test, Coloring Test, and the Radke-Trager Study. The Radke-Trager study was one that was done to both white and colored students. Each student was given either a white or colored doll, clothing, and three houses. The students then had to dress the doll and put it in the “right house,” which was up to the child to decide. This data cannot be considered “evidence” of the harm of school segregation on children. Clark’s findings do not show that segregation in schools has a damaging effect on students’ self-esteem. Clark conducted his studies on children aged 3-7; many of these children were not yet in elementary school, which in turn leads to the conclusion that none of their results could be tied directly to school segregation. When Clark conducted his experiments in the segregated schools, a handful of black students would pick up the doll that “looks like them.” With the Radke-Trager study, it does not prove whether or not children’s education gets affected by segregation; it only proves that young children are fully aware of discrimination and how it divides the social norm around them. During Ms. Louisa Holt’s testimony, she claimed that “A sense of inferiority must always affect one’s motivation for learning since it affects the feeling one has of oneself as a person, as a personality or a self or an ego identity.” These tests and testimony simply do not prove that segregation has a psychological effect on students’