What is

Brown vs. Board of Education

Sarah L. Murphy teches children in a two room schoolhouse in Rockmart, Ga. on June 23, 1950 AP Photo

Brown - Briefly

What is Brown v. Board of Education?
It's the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional
What are Black Codes?
Black codes were laws passed in the Southern United States after the Civil War to limit the rights of African Americans and to ensure they remained available as a cheap labor force
What is the Doll Case?
The doll case, also known as the doll tests, was a series of psychological experiments conducted in the 1940s by African American psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark. The experiments were designed to study the effects of segregation on African American children
Was education of black children illegal?
Yes, education for Black children was illegal in some Southern states, especially during the era of slavery:

Before the Civil War
Most Southern states passed laws in the 1830s that made it illegal to teach enslaved people how to read.

After the Civil War
The U.S. government required former slaveholding states to educate both Black and white children. However, Southern leaders passed Jim Crow laws in the late 1870s to segregate Black and white people.
What is SCOTUS Plessy v. Ferguson?
Plessy v. Ferguson was a 1896 Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of "separate but equal" racial segregation laws
What is the 14th amendment?
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution grants citizenship and equal rights to all people born or naturalized in the United States
What state was last to ratify the 14th amendment?
South Carolina was the last state to ratify the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, on July 9, 1868
Is Brown v Board in danger of being overturned?
Yes
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Yesterday
all men are created equal
The Declaration of Independence noted that "all men are created equal." However, this clause was not grounded in law until 1865/68 (ratifying of the 13th and 14th Amendments), which stated that slavery would end, and that all were to experience "equal protection of the law." These rights were not fulfilled and are still in question to this day.

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled against Homer Plessy, who refused to give up his seat in the "Whites Only" section of a train, stating that the 14th Amendment was not intended to "abolish distinctions based upon color." Following this ruling, the Supreme Court continued to uphold further Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial discrimination, on the basis that separate could be considered equal. This included the rarely known case, Gong Lum vs. Rice (1927), which upheld the right to deny the right of a person of Asian descent to attend a White school.

Several cases went before the Supreme Court, ruled based on circumstances that were considered unequal or obviously detrimental to the student of color. One case was Briggs v. Elliot, argued by NAACP attorney, Robert Carter, which included the famous "doll test" showing the effects of inferiority on one's self-image. Although Carter's closing arguments were compelling and the evidence clearly proved the detrimental effect of segregation, the case was denied.

The NAACP pursued and appealed five cases (Brown vs. Board of Education, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education, Bolling v. Sharpe and Gebhart v. Ethel). The court consolidated these cases into one, and called it Brown vs. Board of Education. Based on the argument that segregated school systems could make Black children feel inferior, with lifelong implications, the Supreme Court (then under Earl Warren) voted unanimously to rule against segregation.

This landmark case did not end segregation in schools. Some schools in the South responded by setting up private academies for White students, and some schools closed rather than opening their doors to Black students. This struggle to desegregate continued in the South, until Cleveland High School in Mississippi received a court order in 2016. A similar court order, provided to a school in California, desegregated that school in 2021.

Although enforced racial segregation is still illegal, schools are more segregated now than they were in the 1960s (Richmond, 2012). Residential segregation and other factors including defacto segregation continue to affect the achievement and social and cultural understanding of others.

We are not done.
Today
Desegregation order in Marin County in 2019
MARIN CITY, Calif. - The hillside school with the dreamy view of San Francisco Bay seems to practically shout e pluribus unum. A racially diverse group of children play an afternoon game of capture the flag. Teachers and parents proclaim their inclusivity with lapel buttons: "All cultures. All faiths. All races. All abilities. All gender identities ... The future is welcome at Willow Creek Academy."
Why are American public schools still segregated?
As a child growing up in Los Angeles, Elise Boddie remembers being bused to a public school outside of her local school district. It was the late 1970s, more than two decades after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated schools, and the busing was part of a statewide effort to integrate those schools that were still segregated.
Tomorrow
The legacy of Brown v. Board of Education is threatened by several factors, including
Segregation
Schools are becoming resegregated, and the number of public schools that are "intensely segregated" has tripled in the last 30 years.

Attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
Efforts to promote DEI have been targeted in states and on college campuses.

Anti-CRT movement
This movement threatens to ban books about race and diverse identities from classrooms and whitewash U.S. history.

Limited affirmative action
The Supreme Court's decision to limit affirmative action in higher education makes it more difficult to advance race-conscious integration.

Systemic prejudice and discrimination
Students continue to face systemic prejudice and discrimination in both K-12 and higher education.

Gaps in educational resources
Black students still don't have access to crucial educational resources, such as early childhood education, experienced teachers, and advanced courses.

School funding
School funding tends to favor schools that mostly serve White students.

Loss of Black teachers
More than 100,000 Black teachers lost their jobs as a result of desegregation.
The 5 cases that led to Brown

The five cases that were combined in the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education were:

Briggs v. Elliott
A 1947 case in South Carolina where 20 parents filed suit after their petition for buses was ignored. The case was named after the first plaintiff, Briggs, and Elliot was the school district chairman.

Bolling v. Sharpe
A case in Washington, D.C. where a parent and the Consolidated Parents Group filed suit after unsuccessfully trying to get 11 African-American students admitted to a white junior high school.

Brown v. Board of Education
A case in Kansas where Oliver Brown claimed his daughter, Linda, was denied access to a white elementary school.

Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County
A case in Virginia that originated from a student protest led by 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns.

Gebhart v. Belton
A case in Delaware where a trial court and the Delaware Supreme Court found that discrimination was unlawful.