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Brown v. Board of Education

Summary

Brown v. Board of Education:
The Crowning Achievement of the U.S. Supreme Court

By David L. Hudson Jr.
Research Attorney
Freedom Forum & First Amendment Center Library

-The Supreme Court has finally reconciled the Constitution with the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. ¹

Brown v. Board of Education is unquestionably a landmark decision of the 20^th century. Legal scholar and historian Bernard Schwartz called it “the watershed constitutional case of this century.”² The unanimous decision by the Court declared that segregated public schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. It was arguably the crowning achievement of the United States Supreme Court.

The case overruled the Supreme Court’s 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld an 1890 Louisiana law providing for segregated railway cars for whites and blacks. In Plessy, the Court had justified the Louisiana law by relying on the prevalence of segregation in education. The Court majority cited examples of segregated public education in Boston and the District of Columbia, writing:

Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation, in places where they are liable to be brought into contact, do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other, and have been generally, if not universally, recognized as within the competency of the state legislatures in the exercise of their police power. The most common instance of this is connected with the establishment of separate schools for white and colored children, which have been held to be a valid exercise of the legislative power even by courts of states where the political rights of the colored race have been longest and most earnestly enforced.³

The Court added: “If the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other's merits, and a voluntary consent of individuals.”⁴

Only Justice John Marshall Harlan — who also dissented from the Court’s dreadful Dred Scott decision — dissented. He wrote in powerful language:

But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. It is therefore to be regretted that this high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is competent for a state to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of race. ⁵

Unfortunately, Harlan’s view was in the distinct minority for much of the 20^th century. American society was far from colorblind. Jim Crow laws mandating segregated public facilities reigned supreme in parts of the country, ensuring that there was a caste system.

It would be only fitting that the evil of segregation would be successfully attacked in an education case. This happened in the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education. ⁶

Thurgood Marshall and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attacked the Plessy separate but equal doctrine in the educational arena. They attacked the doctrine in several cases filed in several different states and the District of Columbia: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in Kansas, Briggs v. Elliot in South Carolina; Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County in Virginia; Belton v. Gebhart in Delaware; and Bolling v. Sharpe in the District of Columbia.

Each of the cases involved black schoolchildren who were denied admission to all-white schools. The plaintiffs in each case contended that the forced segregation violated their 14th Amendment right to equal protection. There were many plaintiffs, including Oliver Brown, the father of third-grader Linda Brown. Oliver Brown and the other plaintiffs, many of whom were parents, argued that separate schools are not equal and can never be made truly equal. The plaintiffs from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia filed suit in federal court. The plaintiffs in Delaware filed suit in a state court.

The plaintiffs lost in every case except Delaware. The lower courts, compelled to follow the Plessy precedent, ruled that the school boards had done sufficient work to improve schools for African-Americans and thus complied with the separate but equal doctrine. Even the favorable decision from Delaware did not overrule Plessy. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed a local court ruling that the plaintiffs should prevail because the white schools were far superior to the schools for black children.

The losing side appealed each case to the U.S. Supreme Court — the Court of Last Resort. The Court consolidated the cases from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware into what became known as Brown v. Board of Education. The case from the District of Columbia became known as Bolling v. Sharpe.

Before the U.S. Supreme Court

The parties argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in December 1952 for several days. The Court, internally divided on the controversial issues presented by the case, ordered reargument for fall 1953. The death of then-Chief Justice Fred Vinson led to more delay.

The Court held another round of oral arguments in December 1953. Unlike most current Supreme Court arguments, which last for an hour, the Court spent three days hearing arguments. Several attorneys spoke for the various plaintiffs, including Thurgood Marshall for the South Carolina plaintiffs and Robert Carter for Oliver Brown and the other plaintiffs from Kansas. Opposing the plaintiffs at oral argument was the legendary John W. Davis, who had participated in 250 cases before the Supreme Court.

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregated public schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The new Chief Justice Earl Warren, freshly appointed to the High Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authored the opinion. The Court dispensed with the arguments over what the framers of the 14th Amendment had intended regarding education. Warren pointed out that at the time of the adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868, public education itself had not taken hold in parts of the country. Warren also noted that the Court had not created the separate but equal doctrine until its 1896 Plessy decision.

Warren then focused on the importance of education in society. “It is the very foundation of good citizenship,” he wrote. “In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.” ⁷

The Supreme Court phrased the question as: “Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities?” ⁸

The Court relied on psychological evidence for the proposition that separate educational facilities, even if roughly equivalent, created a feeling of inferiority in black students. “To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way likely ever to be undone.”

The Court unanimously answered yes to its question, finding that segregation violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. “We conclude that in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place,” the Court wrote. “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” ⁹

The Court cited several psychological studies showing that segregated schools imposed a badge of inferiority among minority students. For example, the Court in a footnote cited a study by Kenneth B. Clark, a highly regarded black social scientist. ¹⁰ Marshall and the NAACP worked with Clark to develop evidence showing the damage of separate schools for the races. Clark testified at the trial court level in the South Carolina and Delaware cases.

Clark tested black children in Philadelphia, Boston and other communities by showing them white and black dolls. In study after study, the black children preferred the white dolls and showed signs of self-rejection. Clark said: “I don’t think we had quite realized the extent of the cruelty of racism and how hard it hit.” ¹¹

The Supreme Court realized the damage done by segregation enough to cite Clark and other social scientists in a footnote in their opinion, including Gunnar Myrdal’s classic 1944 work on race in America, American Dilemma. The Court realized that the separate but equal doctrine had no place in an American society based on the ideal of equality.

Brown II and beyond

The Court’s decision in May 1954 established the fundamental principle that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. It did not end the story of school desegregation. The next year, the Court issued another decision, often called Brown II, which instructed school districts how to comply with its prior decision. The Court ordered the courts to enter orders ensuring that school districts desegregated their schools —in its classic phrase “with all deliberate speed.” ¹²

Unfortunately, the Brown decision met harsh resistance in various parts of the country. President Eisenhower had to send in the National Guard to assist “the Little Rock Nine” in integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957. Later courts issued orders mandating busing to ensure a better racial balance at many schools. Strong community resistance often met these decisions. At least one noted author has recently referred to the “troubled legacy” of the great case. ¹³

However, one fact remains certain —Brown v. Board of Education was a historic decision that helped the country live up to its higher ideals. “With its power and simplicity, the Brown decision stands as one of the most important and best known the Court has ever issued,” writes veteran Supreme Court correspondent and author Tony Mauro. “In a single stroke, the Court swept aside centuries of custom, replacing it with a command to work toward the democratic ideal of equality.” ¹⁴

On the 50^th anniversary of the decision, all Americans should take time to appreciate this great moment in our history.

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