Brown+Vs.+Board+of+Education

 Year: 1954

Case: In Topeka, Kansas in the 1950’s schools were segregated into all-black and all-white buildings. The case began when Linda Brown and her family felt that having a segregated school system violated the Fourteenth amendment of the constitution. The Brown family took their case to court.

Ruling: The Federal district court decided that segregation in public schools was harmful to black children because it forced some black children to walk through dangerous parts of town to get to their school buildings when the “whites only” schools were closer and safer to get to. However, because all-black school and all-white schools had similar buildings, transportation, curriculum, and teachers, the segregation remained legal.

Appeal: The Browns appealed their case to the Supreme Court. They argued that even if the facilities of the schools were similar, segregated schools could never be equal to one another. The court decided that state laws requiring separate but equal schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision of this case overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision of 1896 decision which allowed state-sponsored education.

Impact on schools: The impact of Brown vs. The Board of Education was huge for schools! It eliminated legalized segregation and declared separate schools for blacks and whites to be unconstitutional.

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