Brown V. Board Of Education Case Study

Words: 480
Pages: 2

The Declaration of Independence states that "All men are created equal." This was not completely true until after the civil war. After the civil war the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were introduced to give African Americans the same right as white people. However even with these laws now in the constitution, African Americans were still treated unequally. The states made laws so that they could have segregation. They had segregation in public facilities, buses, schools, and a lot more. These laws were known as Jim Crow laws. Even though many people thought these laws were not right, it was not until the 1890s that they were discussed in the court of law.

In 1892, an African American man named Homer Plessy refused to give up his seat to a white
…show more content…
Board of Education was the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. These cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliott, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. Each case had different situation, but the same issue of of public schools segregation. Although there were many legal issues that came up in the case, the most common issue was that segregation in school is unequal, violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. It was also argued that segregated school systems made black children feel inferior to white children. The court was not able to make a decision by the end of the Court's 1952-1953 term so the Court decided to rehear the case in December 1953. During the break Chief Justice Fred Vinson died and was replaced by governor Earl Warren of California. When the case was reheard Chief Justice Warren was able to do something that was not done before. He got all of the Justices to support the decision of making segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On May 14, 1954, The Court said that separate but equal is inherently