Brown vs Board Ruling
"Perhaps it's well that at long last the matter has come to a head."
(May 17, 1954)
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an unanimous
decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ruling that
racial segregation in public educational facilities was
unconstitutional. The historic decision, which brought an end to
federal tolerance of racial segregation, specifically dealt with
Linda Brown, a young African American girl who had been denied
admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because
of the color of her skin. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy
v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" accommodations in railroad
cars conformed to the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal
protection. That ruling was used to justify segregating all public
facilities, including elementary schools. However, in the case of
Linda Brown, the white school she attempted to attend was far
superior to her black alternative and miles closer to her home. The
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
took up Linda's cause, and in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka reached the Supreme Court. African American lawyer (and
future Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall led Brown's legal
team, and in May 1954 the high court handed down its unanimous
decision. In an opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the
nation's highest court ruled that not only was the "separate but
equal" doctrine unconstitutional in Linda's case, it was
unconstitutional in all cases because educational segregation
stamped an inherent badge of inferiority on African American
students. One year later, the Supreme Court published guidelines
requiring public school systems to integrate "with all deliberate
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In September 1957, the first major
test of the decision came when nine African American teenagers attempted
to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In violation
of a federal order to integrate the school, Arkansas Governor Orval
Faubus surrounded the school with National Guard troops and denied the
black students entry. A showdown with federal officials ensued and on
September 24, President Dwight Eisenhower sent 1,000 U.S. troops to
Little Rock. The next day, the African American students entered under
heavily armed guard. The episode served as a catalyst for the
integration of other segregated schools in the United States.
Click here to hear
News Report: Brown v. Board of Education ruling
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