Brown V. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Ronald Still
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
Brown v. Board of Education
Background
The Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education dates back to 1954, the case was centered on the Fourteenth Amendment and challenged the segregation of schools solely on the basis of race. The Brown case was not the only case of its time involving school segregation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was leading the push to desegregate public schools in the United States (Gold, 2005). Brown v. Board of Education was a consolidation of four cases that had made their way through the court system. It was 1950 and Linda brown was just seven years old, she lived in Topeka, Kansas and was African American descent (she was black). Each mourning Linda traveled 21 blocks and crossed through a dangerous railroad yard to get to school. Her journey to school took an hour and twenty minutes. White children who lived in the same neighborhood only traveled 7 blocks in a considerably less amount of time (Gold, 2005). Linda’s father Oliver filed a lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education arguing that he wanted the same conditions for his daughter (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 2009). The case was heard by three judges in Federal District Court, and they ruled against the plaintiffs, the case went to Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the U.S Supreme Court (Topeka, Kansas: Segregation in the Heartland). The second case was Gebhart v. Belton was similar to the Topeka case, a Delaware school bus with all white students would pass Sarah Bulah’s home, so she asked the schools officials to let her daughter ride on the bus. When School officials turned down her request, Sarah went to the state board of education. Sarah was told that black students were not allowed to ride on the bus with whites (Gold, 2005). The case went to the State Court, which ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but neither
Ronald Still
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
Brown v. Board of Education
Background
The Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education dates back to 1954, the case was centered on the Fourteenth Amendment and challenged the segregation of schools solely on the basis of race. The Brown case was not the only case of its time involving school segregation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was leading the push to desegregate public schools in the United States (Gold, 2005). Brown v. Board of Education was a consolidation of four cases that had made their way through the court system. It was 1950 and Linda brown was just seven years old, she lived in Topeka, Kansas and was African American descent (she was black). Each mourning Linda traveled 21 blocks and crossed through a dangerous railroad yard to get to school. Her journey to school took an hour and twenty minutes. White children who lived in the same neighborhood only traveled 7 blocks in a considerably less amount of time (Gold, 2005). Linda’s father Oliver filed a lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education arguing that he wanted the same conditions for his daughter (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 2009). The case was heard by three judges in Federal District Court, and they ruled against the plaintiffs, the case went to Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the U.S Supreme Court (Topeka, Kansas: Segregation in the Heartland). The second case was Gebhart v. Belton was similar to the Topeka case, a Delaware school bus with all white students would pass Sarah Bulah’s home, so she asked the schools officials to let her daughter ride on the bus. When School officials turned down her request, Sarah went to the state board of education. Sarah was told that black students were not allowed to ride on the bus with whites (Gold, 2005). The case went to the State Court, which ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but neither
References: Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497 (1954) Brown v Gold, S. D. (2005). Brown v. Board of Education: Seperate but Equal? Tarrytown: Benchmark Books. Guey Heung Lee v. Johnson, 404 U.S. 1215 (1971) Plessy v Smithsonian National Museum of American history . (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2012, from Separate is not equal: http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/4-five/delaware-1.html Topeka, Kansas: Segregation in the Heartland Waring, J. J. (n.d.). The Leadership Conference on Civil and human Rights. Retrieved September 22, 2012, from Briggs v. Elliot South Carolina: http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/briggs.html U.S Const