"Probably no case ever to come before the nation’s highest tribunal affected more directly the minds, hearts, and daily lives of so many Americans…. The decision marked the turning point in the nation’s willingness to face the consequences of centuries of racial discrimination.”¹ On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court proclaimed that “in the field of public education ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” This historic ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka overturned the Court’s 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that had sanctioned racial segregation. The landmark case marked the culmination of a decades-long legal battle waged by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and residents of several communities. Although people often associate the case with Linda Brown, a young girl whose parents sued so that she could attend an all-white school, Brown v. Board actually consisted of five separate cases.² Originating in four states and the District of Columbia, all began as grassroots efforts to either enroll black students in all-white schools or obtain improved facilities for black students. By the fall of 1952, the Supreme Court had accepted the cases independently on appeal and decided to hear arguments collectively. None of these cases would have been possible without individuals who were courageous enough to take a stand against the inequalities of segregation. Today, several of the schools represented in Brown v. Board of Education stand as poignant reminders of the struggle to abolish segregation in public education. ¹ Richard Kluger, Simple Justice (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), x. |
Continue |