Brown+V.+Board+5-6


 * //BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION//
 * What would break the back of Jim Crow America? What role did education play in the movement to desgregate America?**

||= **Using the the links provided, analyze the landmark Supreme Court case //Brown v. Board of Education//. Cut and paste the information below into a new entry on your Unit 8 Online Notebook.**   ||   ||=   ||

**//Brown v. Board of Education// Legal Case Summary**
 * BASIC FACTS OF THE CASES (more than one) (check video, [|Link 1], [|Link 2], [|Link 3])**
 * Place:** Topeka, Kansas
 * Grievance:** Segregated elementary schools, and the harmful psychological effects of segregation on African American children
 * Plaintiffs:** Oliver Brown and 13 other parents from Topeka
 * Decision:** A three-judge federal court ruled against the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs’ appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court

//Brown v. Board of Education// was not the first challenge to school segregation. As early as 1849, African Americans filed suit against an educational system that mandated racial segregation, in the case of Roberts v. City of Boston.

The 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in //Oliver L. Brown et.al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka (KS) et.al.// is among the most significant judicial turning points in the development of our country.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs relied on legal arguments, historical evidence, and psychological studies:
 * MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE PLAINTIFF (for integration) (check [|Link 1])**
 * In //Plessy v. Ferguson,// the Supreme Court had misinterpreted the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal protection of the laws did not allow for racial segregation.
 * The Fourteenth Amendment allowed the government to prohibit any discriminatory state action based on race, including segregation in public schools.
 * The Fourteenth Amendment did not specify whether the states would be allowed to establish segregated education.
 * Psychological testing demonstrated the harmful effects of segregation on the minds of African American children.

**MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE DEFENDANTS (for segregation) (check [|Link 1])** The case for the defenders of segregation rested on four arguments:
 * The Constitution did not require white and African American children to attend the same schools.
 * Social separation of blacks and whites was a regional custom; the states should be left free to regulate their own social affairs.
 * Segregation was not harmful to black people.
 * Whites were making a good faith effort to equalize the two educational systems. But because black children were still living with the effects of slavery, it would take some time before they were able to compete with white children in the same classroom.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear //Brown v. Board of Education// in June 1952. Deciding the case was difficult from the start. Differing social philosophies and temperaments divided the nine justices. Chief Justice Fred Vinson and several others doubted the constitutional authority of the Court to end school segregation. And the justices worried that a decision to integrate schools might be unenforceable.
 * THE CHANGE IN THE COURT (leading to a decision) (check [|Link 1])**

In September 1953 Vinson died, and President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as chief justice. His leadership in producing a unanimous decision to overturn //Plessy// changed the course of American history.

THE COURT DECISION (in your own words) (check [|Link 1] and Link 2) Earl Warren wrote the desicion for the court and he stated that the schools should not be segreagated. He said educatoin is a very important thing in life and segregated schools deprive African Americans of equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

**ENFORCING THE DECISION (discuss "with all deliberate speed) (Check [|Link 1] ****)** The //Brown// decision declared the system of legal segregation unconstitutional. But the Court ordered only that the states end segregation with “all deliberate speed.” This vagueness about how to enforce the ruling gave segregationists the opportunity to organize resistance. Although many whites welcomed the //Brown// decision, a large number considered it an assault on their way of life. Segregationists played on the fears and prejudices of their communities and launched a militant campaign of defiance and resistance.

In the mid-1950s Americans remained deeply divided over the issue of racial equality. African Americans pressed to have the Brown decision enforced, and many people were unprepared for the intensity of resistance among white southerners. Likewise, defenders of the “southern way of life” underestimated the determination of their black neighbors. The African American freedom struggle soon spread across the country. The original battle for school desegregation became part of broader campaigns for social justice. Fifty years after the //Brown// decision, the movement has come to include racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, and other groups, each demanding equal opportunity.  Although many whites welcomed the //Brown// decision, a large number considered it an assault on their way of life. Segregationists played on the fears and prejudices of their communities and launched a militant campaign of defiance and resistance.
 * THE IMPACT and LEGACY** **(Check** [|**Link 1**]**)** ||