Education Reform

History of Brown v. Board of Education Emily Homel

Brown v. Board of Education BackgroundNotwithstanding the Amendments in place, African Americans were habitually treated very poorly in comparison to whites in most parts of the United States.Many state legislatures in the south and across the country even sanctioned laws that officially required segregation of different races. These regulations were known as Jim Crow laws.

The Plessy DecisionHomer Plessy, an African American man in New Orleans, rejected giving up his seat for a white man on a train, and was arrested. Plessy challenged the Louisiana law that separated people of color from whites as he believed it infringed the Fourteenth Amendment.In 1896, the Supreme Court directed against Plessy, and they prolonged the validity of the Jim Crow laws.

NAACPThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1909 and fought for racial equality.The organization attempted to encourage Congress to sanction laws that would safeguard people of color from unfair racist actions.

Murray v. MarylandThe University of Maryland School of Law continuously excluded applying candidates who were of color. Donald Gaines Murray, a man of color, was just as eligible as the many white applicants to attend the University of Marylands School of Law. Thurgood Marshall made the choice to confront this unfair tradition in the Maryland court system. Marshall claimed that the law schools for students of color provided a much weaker education than the Universitys law school. The Court of Appeals governed on Murrays side in 1936, and forced the law school to welcome him into their law program.

Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada Lloyd Gaines, a man of color and a graduate student of an all black college known as Lincoln University, requested admittance to the University of Missouri Law School.He was rejected due to his race and made the choice to sue the state with the goal of joining the University of Missouri's law program. This case moved to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1938, and the Court sided with him. The state was then required to offer a law program for both students or color and white students.

Sweat v. PainterHeman Sweat, an African American students, requested admittance to the University of Texas law school for white students in 1946. Sweat, with the support of the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall, reasoned that the law school for students of color was not as academically strong as the law school for white students. In 1950, the United States Supreme Court sided with him due to the obvious fact that the law schools were not of equal caliber.

McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher EducationThe University of Oklahoma permitted George McLaurin, a student of color, to join its doctoral program in 1949.The University mandated McLaurin sit separately from the rest of the students. Because being estranged from his peers hurt his educational goals, he sued end the segregation of students. The United States Supreme Court sided with McLaurin, Marshall, and the NAACP, and mandated that the university terminate the practice of separating students based on their race.

Brown v. Board of Education BackgroundThe well-known case that many today know as Brown v. Board of Education, was truly five separate cases combined together by the United States Supreme Court. All of the five cases differed in details, however, they did all center on the concern of segregation in the nations public schools.The five cases:Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Briggs v. ElliotDavis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.)Boiling v. Sharpe Gebhart v. Ethel.

Brown v. Board of Education In 1952, the five cases came together in front of the Supreme Court were given the name of Brown v. Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall argued before the Supreme Court that schools for students of color and schools for white students were intrinsically not equal.He argued that the separation and inequality violated the Fourteenth Amendment and caused students of color to feel less valued by society.

Brown v. Board of Education The Justices of the Supreme Court were genuinely divided whether or not separate school were equal. The Justices were incapable of determining a solution by the end of the 1952 1953 term. While the Justices were on break, one of them passed away and was substituted by Gov. Earl Warren from California. When their break ended, Chief Justice Warren convinced all of the Justices of the Supreme Court to affirm segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

Brown v. Board of Education Because the Supreme Court predicted hostility to the ruling, they did not offer suggestions on how to apply the new ruling. The supreme court requested that individual states propose policies on how to begin desegregation. Finally, on May 31, 1955, the Justices of the Supreme Court released a plan on how states were to progress towards desegregation. Despite the ruling, it took many years and much hard work from equal rights activists before all segregated school systems were desegregated.

How does the reform affect classroom practices?

How does it affect classroom practices in special education?

Resources United States Courts. (n.d.). History of brown v. board of education. Retrieved from http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/get-involved/federal-court-activities/brown-board-education-re-enactment/history.aspx ABRAMS, D. E. (2013). The Little League Champions Benched by Jim Crow in 1955: Resistance and Reform after Brown v. Board of Education. Journal Of Supreme Court History, 38(1), 51-62. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5818.2013.12003.x

Resources MINOW, M. (2013). Brown v. Board in the World: How the Global Turn Matters for School Reform, Human Rights, and Legal Knowledge. San Diego Law Review, 50(1), 1-27.