Brown v. Board: Ending School Segregation in America

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

thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The minorities of this case were the ones who were colored and they wanted to have admission to public schools of their community on a nonsegregated basis. These cases come from the states of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. All of their facts and conditions have a common legal question which led to one opinion. All of the minorities had been denied admission to their public since there were white people that attended the school. The Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas separated elementary schools for white and African American students with more than 15,000 residents in the community. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in Topeka wanted to challenge that policy and got 13 parents to challenge the law with 20 children and each of them were refused of admission. On Justia US supreme court it states that, “Linda Brown, the daughter of the named plaintiff, could have attended a white school several blocks from her house but instead was required to walk some distance to a bus stop and then take the bus for a mile to an African-American school.” Once the children were denied admission this is when the NAACP brought the lawsuit. At the trial level court they were unsuccessful. The supreme court heard the appeal and combined Brown with four other cases addressing the same issues in those four other states. Brown was the only case that challenged the separate but equal doctrine.
This case it most definitely related to the identity of race. Race is defined as stated in our class lecture as a social construct that divides people into groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance, ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation, and or social economic, and political needs of a society. I believe that the school system was an example of institutional racism. Racism is a system of advantage based on race and supported by individual acts, institutional structures, and cultural values and norms. The school system as an institution would not allow black children come to their school since there were white children which shows that there were some institutional racism going on. During this time period there was lots of racism and a lot of civil rights movements starting up. This is also white privilege which is white people benefiting from access to resources and social rewards as well as the power to shape society’s norms and values. These school districts were making these black children go to further schools and making it harder for them to get there with transportation. This case was one of the most dramatic cases issued by the Supreme Court and this was a huge step forward in ending the segregation problems that we had going on in our country for so long.
The target group of this case were African American children or families. These children were being turned down to just go to their local public school just because the color of their skin. This was very evident that African Americans were very unequal and it shows that inequality was going on a lot during this period. Inequality occurs because society operates under the majority’s norms thus giving members of the majority group an advantage as stated in lecture. This case shows how white people were the privileged group and the black people were the oppressed group meaning they had to adjust their ways just to go to school since white people were the dominant group and that is how society wanted it. Privilege is defined in lecture as one group has something of value that is denied to others because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they have done or failed to do. This case shows that white people were allowed to go to their public schools and they denied black people in coming to their school not because anything they have done but just because they were not white. This case really did social justice for the race of black people. Social justice is a focus on eliminating social inequalities that exist for some people based on social differences as said in lecture. African Americans were finally allowed to attend the same schools as other white children without being punished or not successfully admitted to their closest public school. This case did not completely desegregate every problem in the vision of this case in the United States since many of the problems have been too difficult to solve. The overall solution of this case was solved allowing black children to be able to attend their local public schools with other white children not making it hard for the black children to get to the further away schools they were being forced to attend.
The non targeted group in this case would have to be the white people and the whole American society.

In the previous 60 years in the United States everything had been racially segregated. Many blacks and whites could not even use the same public facilities like bathrooms, water fountains, etc. They could not even sit in the same sections on the buses together. During this time period in the United States white people were without a doubt the most powerful group and would always take advantage of this. This case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement, inspiring education reform everywhere and forming the legal means of challenging segregation in all areas of society according to civilrights.org. After this case our society and our nation made great efforts to allowing colors into public schooling to get an education for all. Education is the most important tool to our society these days because without an education you can not make it far in our nation today. Opening the doors to all of these children to get an education really helped our society out as a whole. Education plays a huge role into how much money people earn and what kind of jobs people get. There is wealth intersectionality in our society as we talked about in lecture. People of color are more likely to be exposed to the low quality education. If a parent is well educated that means the parent gets a high paying job. With a high paying job comes with the family living in a “good” area. If you live in a good area your children will be well educated and they will grow up and this cycle will continue. On a website called americanhistory.edu it says, “Americans believe that a racially integrated, ethnically diverse society and educational system is a worthy goal.” This case has played a huge role in our society and where we are now as a

country.