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}}.

The case

In 1951, a class action suit was filed against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. The plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their twenty children.http://cjonline.com/stories/050904/04b_localcase.shtml The suit called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. Separate elementary schools were operated by the Topeka Board of Education under an 1879 Kansas law which permitted (but did not require) districts to maintain separate elementary school facilities for Negro and white students in twelve communities with populations over 15,000.

Related Topics:
1951 - Topeka, Kansas - U.S. District Court - Kansas

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The plaintiffs had been recruited by the leadership of the Topeka NAACP. Notable among the Topeka NAACP leaders was the chairman McKinley Burnett, Charles Scott, one of three serving as legal counsel for the chapter, and Lucinda Todd. The named plaintiff, Oliver L. Brown worked as a welder for the Santa Fe railroad and was studying for the ministry. He was convinced to join the lawsuit by his childhood friend, Charles Scott. Brown's daughter Linda Brown, a third grader, had to walk five blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary, her segregated black school two miles away, while Sumner Elementary, a white school, was only five blocks from her house. As directed by the NAACP leadership, the parents each attempted to enroll their children in the closest neighborhood school in the fall of 1951. They were each refused enrollment and directed to the segregated schools.

Related Topics:
NAACP - McKinley Burnett - Santa Fe railroad - Monroe Elementary

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Linda Brown Thompson later recalled the experience in a 2004 PBS documentary:

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:... well. like I say we lived in an integrated neighborhood and I had all of these playmates of different nationalities. And so when I found out that day that I might be able to go to their school, I was just thrilled, you know. And I remember walking over to Sumner School with my dad that day and going up the steps of the school and the school looked so big to a smaller child. And I remember going inside and my dad spoke with someone and then he went into the inner office with the principal and they left me out ... to sit outside with the secretary. And while he was in the inner office, I could hear voices and hear his voice raised, you know, as the conversation went on. And then he immediately came out of the office, took me by the hand and we walked home from the school. I just couldn't understand what was happening because I was so sure that I was going to go to school with Mona and Guinevere, Wanda, and all of my playmates. http://brownvboard.org/video/blackwhitebrown/

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The Kansas case (Oliver Brown et al v. The Board of Education of Topeka, (Kansas)) was named after Oliver Brown as a legal strategy to have a man at the head of the roster. The twelve plaintiffs were: Oliver Brown, Darlene Brown, Lena Carper, Sadie Emmanuel, Marguerite Emerson, Shirley Fleming, Zelma Henderson, Shirley Hodison, Maude Lawton, Alma Lewis, Iona Richardson, and Lucinda Todd. http://brownvboard.org/mythsandtruths/ http://cjonline.com/stories/050904/04b_localcase.shtml

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The District Court ruled in favor of the Board of Education, citing the U.S. Supreme Court precedent set in Plessy v. Ferguson, {{ussc|163|537|1896}}, which had upheld a state law requiring "separate but equal" segregated facilities for blacks and whites in railway cars. http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown10.shtml The three-judge District Court found that segregation in public education has a detrimental effect upon negro children, but denied relief on the ground that the negro and white schools in Topeka were substantially equal with respect to buildings, transportation, curricula, and educational qualifications of teachers.http://brownvboard.org/research/opinions/brownfsp.htm

Related Topics:
Plessy v. Ferguson - 1896

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Supreme Court review

The case of Brown v. Board of Education as heard before the Supreme Court combined four cases: Brown itself, Briggs v. Elliott (filed in South Carolina), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (filed in Virginia), and Gebhart v. Belton (filed in Delaware). All were NAACP-sponsored cases. The Kansas case was unique among the group in that there was no contention of gross inferiority of the segregated schools physical plant, curriculum, or staff. The district court found substantial equality as to all such factors. The Delaware case was unique in that the District Court judge in Gebhart ordered that the black students be admitted to the white high school due to the substantial harm of segregation and the differences which made the schools separate but not equal.

Related Topics:
Briggs v. Elliott - South Carolina - Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County - Virginia - Gebhart v. Belton - Delaware

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The NAACP's chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall—who was later appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967—argued the case before the Supreme Court for the plaintiffs. Assistant attorney general Paul Wilson—later distinguished emeritus professor of law at the University of Kansas—conducted the state's ambivalent defense in his first appellate trial.

Related Topics:
Thurgood Marshall - 1967

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Local Outcomes

The Topeka middle schools had been integrated since 1941. Topeka High School was integrated from its inception in the late 1800s. The Kansas law permitting segregated schools allowed them only "below the high school level."

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Soon after the district court decision, election outcomes and the political climate in Topeka changed. The Board of Education of Topeka began to end segregation in the Topeka elementary schools in August of 1953, integrating two attendance districts. All the Topeka elementary schools were changed to neighborhood attendance centers in January of 1956, although existing students were allowed to continue attending their prior assigned schools at their option. http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown4.shtml http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown16.shtml http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown7.shtml

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Plaintiff Zelma Henderson in a 2004 interview recalled that no demonstrations or tumult accompanied desegregation in Topeka's schools:

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:They accepted it," she said. "It wasn't too long they integrated the teachers and principals.http://www.cjonline.com/stories/051103/our_brown1.shtml

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The Topeka Public Schools administration building is named in honor of McKinley Burnett, NAACP chapter president who organized the case.

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Monroe Elementary was designated a U.S. National Historic Site unit of the National Park Service on October 26, 1992.

Related Topics:
Monroe Elementary - National Historic Site - October 26 - 1992

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