Brown+vs.+Board+of+Education

//BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION// **What would break the back of Jim Crow America? What role did education play in the movement to desgregate America?**

**SETTING THE STAGE** - ** [|Participate in The Road to Justice activity] Were you successful? What did your learn in the activity (just think about it ....) ** I was successful and I learned that it was really hard for African Americans to rebel and a lot of people wanted to rebel but didn't take action because they were scared.
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 * = **Using the the links provided, analyze the landmark Supreme Court case //Brown v. Board of Education//. Cut and paste the information below into a new entry on your Unit 8 Online Notebook.** ||  ||=   ||

** THE BASIC FACTS OF THE CASES (more than one) (check [|video], [|Link 1], [|Link 2] , [|Link 3] )** consolidated with 4 other cases "African American parents and local activists from the NAACP challenged Topeka’s policy of segregated schooling. They filed their case in U.S. District Court in 1951. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas gave its name to the collection of cases that ended segregation in public schools."  []  Brown was a welder and worked at a church

** THE MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE PLAINTIFF (for integration) (check [|Link 1] )**
 * In //Plessy v. Ferguson,// the Supreme Court had misinterpreted the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal protection of the laws did not allow for racial segregation.
 * The Fourteenth Amendment allowed the government to prohibit any discriminatory state action based on race, including segregation in public schools.
 * The Fourteenth Amendment did not specify whether the states would be allowed to establish segregated education.
 * Psychological testing demonstrated the harmful effects of segregation on the minds of African American children.

** THE MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE DEFENDANTS (for segregation) (check [|Link 1] )**
 * The Constitution did not require white and African American children to attend the same schools.
 * Social separation of blacks and whites was a regional custom; the states should be left free to regulate their own social affairs.
 * Segregation was not harmful to black people.
 * Whites were making a good faith effort to equalize the two educational systems. But because black children were still living with the effects of slavery, it would take some time before they were able to compete with white children in the same classroom.

** THE CHANGE IN THE COURT (leading to a decision) (check** [|**Link 1**] **)** What important change happened in the Supreme Court, and what was its impact? In 1953 Supreme Court Justice Fred Vinson died and Eisenhower replaced him with Earl Warren. He was a leader in the unanimous decision to overturn the //Plessy// case.

** THE COURT DECISION (in your own words) (check** [|**Link 1**] **and Link 2)** What did the Supreme Court decide in the landmark decision?

Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group...Any language in contrary to this finding is rejected. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

—Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

** ENFORCING THE DECISION (discuss "with all deliberate speed) ** ** (Check [|Link 1] ** [|Video])   What was the Court's statement about the enforcement of the decision? What happened to the enforcement?

The states had to end segregation "with all deliberate speed." Because of this vague comment about when to end it, it gave segregationists time to organize resistance. Southern congressman and governors and white supremacists tried to block desegregation. This opposition revealed the difficulty of trying to enforce desegregation. **THE IMPACT and LEGACY** **(Check** [|**Link 1**] **)** What is the overall importance and legacy of //Brown v. Board//? Whites were unprepared for how much the African Americans were willing to fight and vice versa. The Af-Am freedom struggle spread throughout the country and has led to other ethnicities and minorities wanting equal opportunity