Brown v. Board of Education
Brown vs. Board of Education and School Integration The strength of American society is weakened, as it has been since the first slave ship set sail for this country, by the deep-rooted prejudices embedded within the great-grand daughters and sons of former slave owners and slaves. Although the United States has made much progress , one must not forget that less than fifty years have passed since the day little Linda Brown and other innocent children were turned away from a school because of their color. The Brown vs. the Board of Education decision has forever shaped not only the educational system of the twentieth century and beyond, but also the everyday lives we live. Until the commencement of the Brown vs. Board of Education trial the segregation of everything from drinking fountains to schools was based on the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision of 1896. Under that decision racial segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities were deemed as equal. However, black establishments were rarely anything but inferior to those of whites. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established in 1909 to support the rights of black individuals . The NAACP employ
However, the ruling also created a sense of insecurity among social groups that had relied on Jim Crow to control what they perceived as a constant threat to social stability. Overcoming their differences the NAACP on February 28th, 1952 filed a suit on behalf of the Browns with the Federal District Court in Kansas. By interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment as extending equal protection of the law to education the door had been opened to allow minorities equal access to all institutions and opportunities available to citizens of the United States. Oliver Brown, Linda's father, looked to the NAACP for help. Although the arguments of the defense were blatantly shallow, each court refused to find for the Plaintiff. After he spoke to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka Kansas' branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, they agreed to fight for Linda's rights. The lawyers defending the states argued that Plessy vs. There were also cases from South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. This was the turning point of the case. They stated that the South would be harmed by integrated schools because segregation was such an important part of its social institutions. Just as important, however, was the realization by many Africian Americans that the law would no longer protect injustice. Those rulings also encouraged African Americans to bring more challenges to social and political injustice before the Federal courts.
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