Brown v. Board of Education: A Turning Point in Civil Rights

The United States Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education was one of the most important cases in US Supreme Court History. The case developed an issue for Congress on whether or not segregation of children in public schools should be allowed in the States and if the legal doctrine “separate but equal” was constitutional in this conflict. It also created a dilemma with whether the doctrine violated the fourteenth amendment involving the minority children of the Equal Protection Clause. The Supreme Court’s ruling of the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education was one of the numerous victories in the Civil Rights Movement that is reflected on in the present today.
Oliver Brown was an African-American who worked full time and was the father of multiple daughters in 1951. Every day, his daughters would have to walk six blocks and go through a dangerous railroad switchyard to get

their bus stop that would take them to the all-black school, Monroe Elementary. There was a school that was located much closer to the Brown residence but it was only an all-white school. Brown was upset that his daughters couldn’t attend the all-white school that was much closer and safer instead of going through the railroad switchyard all the time. In this situation, he felt that this violated the laws guaranteeing by the fourteenth amendment with the laws not being equal or protected for his daughters. Brown then decided to sue the Board of Education for these unfair circumstances. This case was brought to court a few years later where Chief Justice Earl Warren and the court would make the ruling that would lead to controversy for years to come.
After reviewing all the notes in the case, Justice Warren and the court ruled in favor of Brown. Warren concluded that the legal doctrine “separate but equal” has no place in the field of public education and it being unconstitutional. He stated that separate educational facilities are unequal naturally based on the color of people’s skin and that these issues are started by inequality. This led to the start of integrating schools with white and black children that would lead to people having mixed emotions on how they felt about the outcome of this case at the time in the 1950s.
Another example of another case when they used Brown v.

Board of Education as a reference was in the United States in 1929. It was the Wright v. The Board of Education of Topeka which involved George Wright’s African-American daughter transferring to an all-white reserved school that was twenty blocks away from the Wright house. The case concluded that it was dangerous and inconvenient for a child to walk a long distance from his or her residence that didn’t allow equal education. However this case allowed the city of Topeka to develop separate schools based on race.
The Supreme Court ruling of the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education was one of the many occurrences that developed the start of the Civil Rights Movements in the twentieth century. The case is not only important in US Supreme Court History but also US History because it began integrating schools with black and white people for the first time in the same facility. Years later after integrating schools facilities there would be more integration of other facilities such as the food and store industries as

well.