In the early 1950’s segregation of white and African American children in schools was predominant in many parts of the United States. White schools had a better quality education than black schools.
In Topeka Kansas a black third grader named Lisa Brown had to walk one mile every day to go to the “colored” school even though a white school was only few blocks away. Linda’s father Oliver Brown tried to register Linda in the white elementary school, but the principal refused. Mr. Brown asked for help from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and in 1951 he and other black parents joined Mr. Brown to request an end to the policy of racial segregation in Topeka Public Schools.
On June 26, 1951 the District Court of Kansas heard Brown’s case. In the trial the NAACP argued that the segregation gave a message of inferiority to the black students. They also argued that it deprived the black children of equal opportunities. The Board of Education argued that segregated schools would prepare students for a segregated life in adulthood. The court faced a difficult decision to make. On the one hand the court said that “Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children...A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn” and on the other they had the precedent of the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, where they accepted separate but equal school systems for whites and black students. The court ruled in favor of the Topeka Board of Education.
Brown and (NAACP) appealed to the U.S Supreme Court in October of 1951. The Court heard the case on December of 1952 but failed to reach a decision. The court asked both sides to discuss the circumstances of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. The court made a decision based on the question of whether desegregation provided equal rights to black children.
In May 1954, the Chief Justice Earl Warren read the court decision. He said segregation in public schools based on race deprived children of the minority group to equal educational opportunities. The court concluded that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' had no place.
“Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The Supreme Court required desegregation across America. The decision of the court didn’t abolish desegregation in other public areas nor give a specific date for desegregation of the schools. Segregation in schools was declared unconstitutional in the 21 states that school segregation was still present.
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