M.S. Handout 4D1

Opinion of Mr. Chief Justice Warren and Supreme Court Decision

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: Citation: 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
Concepts: School Segregation; Equal Protection v. State Rights
Facts: Four black children sought the aid of the courts to be admitted to the all-white public schools in their community after having been denied admission under laws which permitted racial segregation. The youths alleged that these laws deprived them of the equal protection of the law under the Fourteenth Amendment, even though their all-black schools were equal to the all-white schools with respect to buildings, curricula, qualifications and salaries of teachers, and other “tangible” factors.
Issue: Whether segregation of children in public schools denies blacks their Fourteenth Amendment right of equal protection under the law.
Opinion: The Supreme Court of the United States looked not to the "tangible" factors but the effect of segregation itself on public education. The Court decided unanimously that segregation of black children in the public school system was a direct violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It rejected the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson, 164 U.S. 537 (1896), and stated that this doctrine had no place in education. According to the Court, even if the facilities were physically equal, the children of the minority group would still receive an inferior education. Separate educational facilities were held to be "inherently unequal."

Source: United States Supreme Court Decisions, Law, Youth and Citizenship Program, p. 24.