Background: The Brown Vs. the board of education case had a big impact on many other similar cases as Mr. Brown’s and on history itself. This case brought many people to see that the segregation of schools did not help the students learn at all, but more hindered than helped. In the 1950’s, public places were segregated. There were black schools where only colored students were allowed to go. Then there were white schools where only white students went. Many white schools were often near colored neighborhoods and communities.
But back then, zoning was not around it did not matter if you lived right next to the school if you were colored you went to a colored school. Many African American children had to walk far distances to get to school, some walked miles and miles, even all the way across town just to get to school. Many African American parents worried about their children’s safety getting to school since some children even had to walk through train yards across town to get to school. Parents like Oliver Brown knew that this was unconstitutional and needed to change the way the School systems operated.
In Topeka Kansas, a little African American 3rd-grade girl had to walk through a train switchyard to get to school. Her father, Oliver Brown, felt this was unsafe to have his child walking trough this yard since there was a school that was much closer to their house. Oliver decided to file a lawsuit against the schools under the separate but equal clause in the constitution. This case kicked off a change in African American history, as well as started a dramatic change in the world. It all started with Linda and Olivier Brown with some help from some great awyers out of the NAACP.
Oliver L. Brown was born in 1618, in Spring-field Montana. He had a pretty typical childhood as an African American boy. Oliver Brown grew up a fine young man and made a living as a minister at St. Marks A. M. E and a railroad welder in Topeka Kansas. He was the provider for his beautiful wife and three daughters, Darlene, Cheryl, and Linda. Oliver wanted the best education and future possible for his daughters. All his children were enrolled in a school, even his 8year-old daughter Linda.
Linda Oliver was going to Monroe elementary, an all-black. To get there, Linda had to walk six blocks just to get to the bus stop and travel through an unsafe railroad yard to get to her school, Monroe elementary. Oliver Brown did not want his little girl to make such dangerous, long, and exhausting journey every morning to school. So, being that there was another elementary school just seven blocks away, Oliver tried to register Linda into Sumner elementary school, which happens to be an all-white school. We can all guess what the verdict of the principal was.
The refusal led to one irate parent that would end up changing the school systems forever. FACTS: After the principal refused, Oliver went to the NAACP, which was McKinley Burnett and asked for assistance. The NAACP was more than glad to help Mr. Brown. In 1951, twelve other African American parents who also had their children denied into allwhite schools, joined in to help Mr. Brown and the NAACP to put a case together and take it to the district courts.
Out of all the families now involved in the movement, Mr. Brown was chosen as the lead plaintiff being the only male. When this case was first taken to the district court, the court found that facilities provided for black schools were equal to white schools. This decision ruled in the favor of the court. Brown then appealed the ruling to take it to the Supreme Court. Once they got into the Supreme Court the lawyers had done some better research and brought into play the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. They argued that such segregation violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The plaintiffs were denied relief based on the precedent set by Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the “separate but equal” doctrine that stated separate facilities for the races was constitutional as long as the facilities were “substantially equal. ” In the case arising from Delaware, the Supreme Court of Delaware ruled that the African American students had to be admitted to the white public schools because of their higher quality facilities. FINAL RULING: A year after the first arguments were heard, the case was stated once again.
Three long years passed until the case was finally closed on May 17th, 1954. The case closed finally in favor of Linda Brown and the other African American children. The supreme court said it is not constitutional that the black and white children were segregated in different schools. The votes were a unanimous 9 to 0. The Brown’s ended up changing African American history forever. Although the court decision was made it still took a few years to actually put all the students together in the same school’s and have them all treated fairly.
Some people still were prejudice against the blacks, so the racism factor was definitely still in play. FINAL AFFECTS: Today children of all color and race attend the same school. Whether it is a boarding school, a public school, or even a private school. This particular case changed history for young students all around the world. Not only did not help AfricanAmericans to be able to get into the schools the case was also an advocate for special education students.
Lawyers were able to use this case to say that special education students were not getting the same classroom setting, teachers, or books that nonspecial education students were getting. So luckily we as a nation had a parent who stood up for his child to change the way the world was or else our children still to this day would be going to different schools still, and the world would still have a form of segregation left. Although, Mr. Brown was not the first African American to try to enroll his child in an all-white school, but his case was not only the last but the most impacted case.
His case really opened the eyes of the jury to see that separation of the school wasn’t helping the children learn and were inconvenient for some of the children. People learn from each other every day and putting the children together in the same schools help the children learn about different lives some children have to live. Makes them appreciate somethings more. Little did the jury know this separation was a huge impact on the world and the other students. Students were able to learn from each other and learn different things about their cultures
