A slide presentation on the Brown v. Board of Education case from the 1950's.

1. Brown v. Board of
Education
Michael Houtzer

2. Background Information
Segregation laws in many states prohibited African American children and white
children from attending the same schools in the 1950’s. Linda Brown, an African
American girl, could not attend a less-crowded white school a few blocks from her
home in Topeka, Kan so she instead had to ride a bus across town to attend an
African American school. In 1951, Linda Brown’s father and several parents from
her school filed suit against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas
in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas arguing that separate
schools were unconstitutional because they violated equal protection guaranteed
by the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court ruled in favor of the Board of
Education citing the “separate but equal” precedent established by the 1896
Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson. The Brown case, along with four other
similar segregation cases, was appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

3. Combined Brown Cases
This case along with Belton v. Gebhart (Delaware), Bolling v. Sharp (Washington
D.C.), Briggs v. Elliot (South Carolina), and Davis v. County School Board of
Prince Edward County (Virginia) were combined to be classified as the Combined
Brown Cases because they were all arguing the same topic in different parts of the
country: segregation schools. This was a huge problem because not only did it
create unfair circumstances for African Americans, but it encouraged racism
towards them with the stereotype that “blacks are not good enough to deserve
better facilities.”

4. Verdict
The case was brought to the Supreme Court in December of 1952 with no
decision due to fear of controversy. Again in December 1953, the Supreme Court
heard the case. Later on May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Warren ruled that
segregation was unconstitutional, stating that “separate is not equal” because it
violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The country
has obviously been better off since this ruling now that our schools are not
separated. I am very lucky to have the friends that I do in my school thanks to this
case and only wish that it had been fixed earlier.

5. Bibliography
http://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/supreme-cour
t-landmarks/brown-v-board-education-podcast
https://brownvboard.org/content/combined-brown-cases-1951-54