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 employed a small fleet of lawyers who fought for the everyday rights of African Americans. Although the NAACP regarded public school segregation as the heart of their problems they rarely attacked it directly. Rather, they tended to fight for rights that posed less of a direct threat to ingrained Southern values.
             Smith vs. Allwright (1944), found segregated political primaries to be unconstitutional (Kluger, 234-7) and was an important victory for disenfranchised voters, but it left more fundamental racist views within society untouched. Another example is the trial of Shelly vs. Kraemer (1948) in which it was ruled that states could not enforce keeping racially restricted neighborhoods segregated ...