M.S. Handout 4B
The Story of Brown v. Board of Education
The case known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas actually included appeals from decisions in four separate states: Kansas, Delaware, South Carolina, and Virginia. Each case represented individual acts of courage by families willing to face local resistance- even hostility- to bring an end to segregation.
School conditions in these four test cases varied, from stark differences in South Carolina between the “colored” and “white” schools to a closer parity in the Topeka, Kansas, schools. In all four states, however, the schools were segregated by law, and the NAACP’s (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) position was that equality could not be achieved until segregation was brought to an end.
Although the four decisions went against the NAACP in the trial courts, its position was strengthened by some of the decisions. In South Carolina, Judge Julius Waties Waring dissented from the opinion of his two colleagues who also heard the case, declaring that “segregation is per se inequality.” An in Kansas, the three-judge panel attached to its opinion a finding of fact that segregation has a detrimental effect on colored children, especially when it is enforced by law.
The four cases were argued on appeal to the United States Supreme Court in 1952, with the issue being whether segregation deprived students of equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court requested reargument of the case in 1953. Before the reargument could occur, Chief Justice Vinson died and was replaced by Chief Justice Earl Warren. Under his guidance, a unanimous Court on May 17, 1954 issued its decision declaring that segregation of the public schools was unconstitutional. A landmark in the struggle for equality under the law for all Americans had been achieved.
Source: "The Story of Brown v. Board of Education," in Dialogue on Brown v. Board of Education, American Bar Association, ABA Division for Public Education, pp. 1-2.
