Verified Document

Brown Vs. Board Of Education Essay

Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) This case presented the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue of de jure segregation. Black children in Topeka were denied admission to public schools attended by white children. The Supreme Court had previously ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that segregation was allowable under the separate but equal doctrine. In Brown the Supreme Court re-examined this doctrine and, in doing so, also examined the general issue of segregation.

Facts: The Brown case was actually a compilation of five cases but the lead case arose out of a class action filed against the Topeka, Kansas Board of Education. The plaintiffs challenged the district's rule that required that black children attend segregated schools. The Topeka schools were arguably equal in terms of buildings, curricula, qualifications, and teacher salaries.The case was originally heard by the Federal District Court and resulted in the Court's ruling that the district's position as to maintaining segregated...

The District Court cited the U.S. Supreme Court's prior ruling in Plessy as precedent. Interestingly, the three-judge District Court panel did recognize, in rendering their decision, that segregation had a detrimental effect on black children. The case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on direct appeal from the District Court's ruling.
Court Decision: The Supreme Court's ruled that segregation of white and black children in public schools based on race denied black children equal protection of the law guaranteed them under provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court argued that even if the physical facilities and other factors were equal that such segregation was unconstitutional and that the maintenance of such conditions created a condition where black children were viewed as being inferior. The separate but equal doctrine set forth in Plessy was rejected.

Court Rationale: The Supreme Court's ruling was based upon a broad range of…

Sources used in this document:
Dissenting Opinion: There was no dissenting opinion as the decision was unanimous.

Personal Opinion: The Brown decision overruled a decision that should have been abolished much earlier but it started the process of ending segregationist practices and policies that had been in operation for centuries in the United States. It not only began the process of ending segregation in the nation's public schools it also contributed to ending it in other areas of American life. Most experts point toward the Brown decision as marking the beginning of the social justice movement that resulted in the eventual passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Although the Fourteenth Amendment came into existence shortly after the end of the Civil War, its true effectiveness was not realized until nearly a century later as the Warren Court discovered a way to apply it in an effort to end segregation in America's schools. Fortunately, once the amendment was used in Brown the Supreme Court began applying it more broadly to expand the Bill of Rights to the states.

Brown v. Board of Education
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Education Policy -- Social Forces
Words: 726 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

More recently, the student (and parent) demonstrations against desegregation in several southern American states after the Brown V. Board of Education decision in 1954 demonstrated how much students absorb perception and form fundamental beliefs by social learning. That is not to say that social learning should not occur within the realm of education; in fact, it is inevitable and unavoidable that it would. The issue is that education systems must

Education in Law Litigation and
Words: 1193 Length: 4 Document Type: Article Critique

An astounding 72% of teachers were seen to think that parents too often take their child's side without being reasonable to what really happened from an adults' point-of-view. Additionally, many may see the chance of a lawsuit as a way to get rich quick, and therefore blow up the situation bigger than necessary for the potential of a large payment. Since this happens too often within modern practice, it

Education Theories Knowledge of Learning
Words: 3781 Length: 12 Document Type: Term Paper

Dr. Frank Pajares, writing in Reading and Writing Quarterly (Pajares 2003), points out that in his view of Bandura's social learning theory, individuals are believed to possess "self-beliefs that enable them to exercise a measure of control over their thoughts, feelings, and actions." As has been mentioned earlier in this paper, but put a slightly different way by Pajares ("Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Motivation, and Achievement in Writing: A Review of the Literature")

Brown V. Board of Education
Words: 1959 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

When Brown vs. Board of Education came to the courts the judges ruled that the school law allowing "separate but equal educations" was unconstitutional which set the stage for the later examination of special education students being "separate but equal" in the district's treatment of their education. I agree with the decision that was handed down and believe that one justice decision summed up the facts when it comes to any

Brown V. Board of Education
Words: 1277 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

Brown vs. Board of Education A landmark court case that occurred in the early 1950's resulted in the desegregation of public schools. This historic Supreme Court case was known as Brown vs. Board of Education. The place was Topeka, Kansas, 1951. A little girl named Linda Brown and her father, Oliver Brown, attempted to enroll Linda in a neighborhood elementary school that accepted whites only. The request was denied, by the

Education Factors Relating to the
Words: 5961 Length: 22 Document Type: Term Paper

According to a British Study conducted on all students born in the first week of March 1958, and following them through adolescence and on until the age of twenty-three: There were no average differences between grouped and ungrouped schools because within the grouped schools, high-group students performed better than similar students in ungrouped schools, but low-group students did worse. Students in remedial classes performed especially poorly compared to ungrouped students

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now