Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, {{ussc|347|483|1954}} was a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court which explicitly outlawed de jure racial segregation of public education facilities (legal establishment of separate government-run schools for blacks and whites), ruling so on the grounds that the doctrine of "separate but equal" public education could never truly provide black Americans with facilities of the same standards available to white Americans. A companion case dealt with the constitutionality of segregation in the District of Columbia, (not a state and therefore not subject to the Fourteenth Amendment), Bolling v. Sharpe, {{ussc|347|497|1954}}.

Background

For much of the 90 years preceding 1954, race relations in the United States had been dominated by segregation, a system of racial separation which, while in name providing for separate but equal treatment of both white and black Americans, in truth perpetuated inferior accommodations, services, and treatment for black Americans. Segregation in education varied wildly from the 17 states which required segregation to the 16 which prohibited it.

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Brown is undoubtedly the most famous of a group of U.S. Supreme Court cases which principally deal with the struggle of black Americans to recover the rights of citizenship expressly given to them by the Constitution of the United States. The related cases are listed below.

Related Topics:
Constitution of the United States - The related cases are listed below

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