Brown Vs. Board Of Education

The Unites States of America is a country that partook in the segregation of blacks and whites. The Civil Rights movement was an unprecedented historical event with a purpose to ameliorate the conditions of black persons in the United States of America. The Civil Rights movement also worked to change the way minorities, especially black persons, are viewed. Since the abolition of slavery, into the late 1960’s, black persons were fighting ,for which they had not been accommodated for. Segregation is the policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnic groups, and was the main problem of those times. Segregation effected how minorities were treated in schools, housing and public or commercial facilities, inevitably enforcing discrimination.

There were two forms of segregation that occurred in America; de jure and de facto segregation.(nps.gov) De jure segregation was segregation that was being enforced by laws,and this type of segregation was eliminated in the US in the mid 1960’s. De facto segregation refers to segregation that occurs as “a matter of fact”, such as where one lives or where one goes to school. The most prominent site of segregation in the US took place in the southern states(Wexler 32) The segregation that occurred in the south held many similarities to apartheid that took place in South Africa such as races being kept separate, the prohibiting of miscegenation and voting rights being systemically restricted or denied. The list of laws in the south that restricted blacks from their rights and freedoms were called Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were laws instituted by the new democratic governments in the south to separate the black and white racial groups in order to enforce white supremacy(wikipedia.org). Arguably the most controversial form of segregation in the US was in the education system. Jim Crow laws pertaining to the segregation of schools were as follows: the schools for white children and the schools for negro children should be conducted separately (Florida), separate schools shall be maintained for the children of white and coloured races(Mississippi), the County Board of Education shall provide schools of two kind; those for white children and those for coloured children (Texas)(nps.gov). The fight against the segregation of school began as early as 1896 in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson where the “separate but equal” doctrine was first established which was the very basis for institutionalized segregation in the US(Wexler 32. This doctrine was first successfully challenged in the Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka. The case of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka was the landmark case of the modern day Civil Rights Movement.

The Brown v. The Board of Education comprised five cases (brown board.org/summary) . These cases were Brown itself, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Belton v. Gebhart, Briggs v . Elliot ( Clarendon County, South Carolina), Bolling v. Sharpe. The NAACP(National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) were the primary sponsors for these cases. In the 1930’s the NAACP launched a concerted legal attack against school segregation and Jim Crow Laws(Wexler 33). In order to establish its case the NAACP had to prove that segregated schools would never truly be equal, they also had to prove that the consequences of segregation including psychological, intellectual, and financial damages prevented genuine equality.

In 1950 there was over two million black students who were in a segregated elementary school(Wexler 36). Particularly, in Clarendon County there were close to three times as many black students in comparison to whites. Despite this immense difference in population the white students received more than 60% of the educational appropriations. Per capita spending was claimed to be $43/yr for every black student and $179/yr for every white student(Wexler 36). There were also studies that stated that for every 47 black students there was 1 teacher as opposed to 1 teacher per every 28 white students (Wexler 37). As part of its defence the NAACP knew it had to present scientific evidence that would suggest the segregation of students in school would cause irreparable psychological damage (Wexler 38). The NAACP brought in black psychologist Dr. Kenneth Clark to examine the students of Clarendon County. Clark tested children from ages 6-9, Clark showed them black and white dolls- out of the 16 children 10 of the children said that they liked the white dolls more because they looked “nice” and the black dolls looked “bad”(Wexler 40). Dr. Clark concluded that “these children saw themselves as inferior, and they accepted their inferiority as part of reality.” The court however found Clarks research to be “unrelated to the case” in a 2-1 decision(Wexler 40). Judge J. Waties Waring who opposed segregation for a long time and said “there is absolutely no reasonable explanation for racial prejudice… it is all caused by unreasoning emotional reactions and these are gained early in childhood… Segregation in education can never produce equality and is an evil that needs to be eradicated”(Wexler 41). After these cases the courts still stuck to their “separate but equal” doctrine. The NAACP pointed out that the justices writing the majority opinion had based their decisions on cases and legal precedents that predated the Civil war and the 14th amendment.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified on July 28, 1868. The 14th Amendment’s purpose was to ensure that any person would be equally protected before and under the law without any distinctions based upon race. Specifically, the 14th Amendment states that:

Section. 1. 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.(caselaw.lp.findlaw.com)

Segregation in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment is there to protect any person from distinctions being imposed based upon race. Racial segregation in schools reduces the fairness of education of one group on the sole basis of race which is unconstitutional (Wexler 43). Even though the tangible factors may