LAD #35- Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas

Brown vs. Board of Education
Topeka, Kansas
1951
Summary:

Schools of the 1950's were widely segregated, despite the fact that they were supposed to be equal. One third-grader, Linda Brown had to walk an extra few miles to the black elementary school even though the white school was only a few blocks away. Her father had attempted to enroll her in the white elementary school, but was refused. As a result Oliver Brown went to the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People who were eager to challenge the segregation in public schools. Brown's case was brought to trial, and was then known as Brown vs. Board of Education.

The Board of Education testified that segregation already existed everywhere else, so segregation in schools served to prepare black children for what they would face in adulthood, also arguing that these schools posed no harmful threat to the children. The judges partially agreed with the witness, writing that "A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn."

However, there was also the precedent of Plessy vs. Ferguson that allowed separate yet equal schools, urging the court to rule in favor of the Board. The NAACP and Brown appealed to the Supreme Court, their case combined with those from other states with similar situations, but the court did not reached a decision. A decision was finally made based on whether black children were deprived equal protection in schools under the law, with the final ruling that the "separate but equal" doctrine was to be down away with, and schools to be desegregated.

The ruling did not abolish segregation in all other areas, but did declare mandatory segregation unconstitutional, along with foreshadowing the eventual desegregation of the nation.