LEARNING TOGETHER: The Story of America
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) which legalized separate but equal or segregation laws (Jim Crow laws) created by our state and local governments, especially in the South. The focus of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling was on racially segregated public schools.
In the 40s and 50s, the NAACP urged Black parents to register (or try to register) their children in white schools in Kansas. None were accepted. The NAACP filed a lawsuit. In 1951, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson and Gong Lum v. Rice (segregation of Asian American students) was used to explain that segregation was as American as baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie. Simply put, our Supreme Count saw nothing wrong with blocking Black (and Asian) Americans kids from attending all-white schools.
Thank goodness that you can’t keep a good brother down, because in 1952 and 1953 Thurgood Marshall, future Supreme Court justice, argued the case before the Supreme Court (Was this his job interview?).
At this point, the justices perhaps actually read our constitution and figured out that segregation goes against the 14th Amendment which is all about equal protection for all Americans.
Or they could have just visited a few predominantly Black schools and a few predominantly white schools, and they would have immediately realized that there was nothing equal about these schools. Who am I kidding, I seriously doubt if any of these justices (including our current justices) have every step foot inside of a predominantly Black school.
Either way, Marshall representing the NAACP won the case for all Americans.
See Part 2
2-part mini-series
OUR HISTORY MATTERS
#44
