Learning Activity: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
This Supreme Court decision was probably the most well known and influential of Robert Jackson’s term on the Court. Thurgood Marshall, the chief lawyer for the NAACP and future Supreme Court justice, and his team of attorneys argued that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and that the 1896 Supreme Court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson should be reversed. Students should review the background for the Brown case in Robert H. Jackson: New Deal Lawyer, Supreme Court Justice, Nuremberg Prosecutor by Gail Jarrow on pages 101-105. For student activities and additional resources, including websites, related to the Brown decision, see www.brownvboard.net. This website includes student lessons at the middle and high school level and features constructed response and document-based activities.
Students can also visit the Public Broadcasting website at www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/ to find more information and to view a DVD broadcast about the Brown decision. Click on Program 3: The Supreme Court, A Nation of Liberties, Segment 2, Separate but Equal Has No Place in the Constitution (Broadcast date: February 7, 2007). WNET, Channel 13, New York at www.thirteen.org also features information and video segments about the Brown decision. Students can also research this landmark decision at the National Archives website at http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/brown_v_board_documents/brown_v_board.html and search for Brown v. Board of Education.
An excellent teacher resource, Law Studies: Brown v. Board of Education, Law, Youth and Citizenship Program, Spring/Summer 2004 is available by contacting www.lycny.org. This journal, published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown, includes background articles about the decision as well as teacher lesson plans.