Brown v. Board of Education

{{title-italics}}{{constnav}}{{caselaw|Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka|347 U.S. 483|May 17, 1954}}
'''''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka''''' was a landmark 1954 [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] decision that ordered racial desegregation of [[public school]]s. It was based on the equal protection clause of the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution|US Constitution]],{{efn|In 1954, the Supreme Court decided the landmark case of ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka''. "Racially segregated schools," the Court concluded, are "inherently unequal." The Court found support for its decision in studies that indicated that minority students learn better in racially mixed classrooms.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education#transcript Brown v. Board of Education (1954)] ''National Archives''.</ref>}} and on [[social science]] research that claimed to show that [[African American|black]] children have trouble learning unless white children are in the classroom{{cn}}. The ruling overturned the ruling of ''Plessy v. Ferguson'' of 1896, which confirmed that racial [[segregation]] established in [[Jim Crow laws]] was permitted as long as "[[Separate but equal|equal, but separate]]" accommodations for were provided,<ref>Text of ''Plessy v. Ferguson'': https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/163/537</ref> when in reality, most facilities for [[African Americans]] were not even close to equal or didn't exist at all. The decision led to later decisions requiring racial busing of school children.

==Law and social change==
It is debatable how much actual desegregation was a result of this ruling and related federal court decisions, as a subsequent ruling ordered states to desegregate "with all deliberate speed" but didn't specify how. This raises interesting questions as to the role of the Supreme Court in bringing about actual social change. Few people today will dispute the need to end the earlier system of segregated schools, and the importance of the decision, but many will query whether it changed that much, or if its use was rather in sending a definitive signal that the days of segregation and [[Jim Crow laws|institutionalized racism]] were at a close.

==Backlash==
U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia declared {{wpl|Massive resistance|"massive resistance}} to the ruling, and many white politicians throughout [[the South]] followed suit, some even going so far as closing public schools entirely rather than allowing for racial integration. This led to President [[Eisenhower]] to call out the National Guard to enforce integration in Little Rock, [[Arkansas]], followed by further legal and political battles.

Sadly, the handling of ''Brown v. Board'' left a huge space for improvement. While the white schools were required to take in black students, they weren't required to bring in the black ''teachers'' as well. Many districts, still in a rage about the whole Supreme Court ruling, did the obvious thing. In just over a decade after ''Brown v. Board'', the number of black teachers would drop by more than half nationwide,<ref>[http://www.ebony.com/news-views/sixty-years-after-brown-v-board-black-teachers-are-disappearing-again-304#axzz33UkXSJBj Teachers disappearing again, Ebony magazine]</ref> a number that included everywhere and not just the Jim Crow areas. This had some further effects that are still being felt today, as even just one black teacher in elementary school is enough to reduce the high school dropout rate of black students by 2/5,<ref>[http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/04/10/522909090/having-just-one-black-teacher-can-keep-black-kids-in-school Just one black teacher can keep black kids in school, NPR]</ref> as the students are prevented from being alienated.

==See also==
*[[Orval Faubus]], the Governor of Arkansas who refused to desegregate and ordered the National Guard to stop black kids from entering white schools, sparking a constitutional crisis that forced the fucking President to intervene.
*[[Thurgood Marshall]], who successfully litigated for nationwide desegregation.
*[[Earl Warren]], the Supreme Court Justice who ruled in favor of desegregation.
*[[Dwight Eisenhower]], the President who assumed direct control of the Arkansas National Guard to protect black students in Little Rock, Arkansas, against the wishes of Governor Faubus.
*[[Civil Rights Cases]]
*''[[Coit v. Green]]''

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:United States Supreme Court cases]]

Categories: Racism, United States Supreme Court cases