"Protesters March against the Segregation of U.S. Schools"
Brown v. Board of Education
The case that is known as Brown v. Board of Education were from different minor cases that were compiled and brought to the U.S. Supreme Court. All of these cases were complaints about segregation in public schools. The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund assisted all of these cases and brought them to the Supreme Court. Laws protected citizen's rights but it still forced students to attend public schools based on their race. Thurgood Marshall said,
"There is some magic to it. You can have them voting together, you can have them not restricted because of law in the houses they live in. You can have them going to the same state university and the same college, but if they go to elementary and high school, the world will fall apart."
Laws enforced rights for residents, but they could not put students of different race together. Black schools were prohibited from attending “white” public schools only because they were different colors from them. These schools were segregated and black students were discriminated against. Justice Henry Billings Brown said,
“The object of the [Fourteenth] amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to endorse social, as distinguished from political, equality. . . If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane."
They argued that school boards did not follow the Fourteenth Amendment which defends the segregated children that are different race from attending public schools. As the case was brought to the Supreme Court, many argued that segregation in public schools are unconstitutional and the Plessy doctrine should be reversed. Chief Justice Fred Vinson was originally the Chief Justice for the case, but due to his sudden death, he was replaced by Earl Warren. Chief Warren was different from the past chief justice. He persuaded all other Justices to declare that segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.
"There is some magic to it. You can have them voting together, you can have them not restricted because of law in the houses they live in. You can have them going to the same state university and the same college, but if they go to elementary and high school, the world will fall apart."
Laws enforced rights for residents, but they could not put students of different race together. Black schools were prohibited from attending “white” public schools only because they were different colors from them. These schools were segregated and black students were discriminated against. Justice Henry Billings Brown said,
“The object of the [Fourteenth] amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to endorse social, as distinguished from political, equality. . . If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane."
They argued that school boards did not follow the Fourteenth Amendment which defends the segregated children that are different race from attending public schools. As the case was brought to the Supreme Court, many argued that segregation in public schools are unconstitutional and the Plessy doctrine should be reversed. Chief Justice Fred Vinson was originally the Chief Justice for the case, but due to his sudden death, he was replaced by Earl Warren. Chief Warren was different from the past chief justice. He persuaded all other Justices to declare that segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.