Brown Vs. Board Of Education
Years ago, children of different races could not go to school together in many places in the United States. School districts could legally segregate students into different schools according to the color of their skin. The law said these separate schools had to be equal. However, many schools for children of color were of lesser quality than the schools for white students. Separate schools for blacks and whites became a basic rule in southern society. Within time, all of that was about to change.
As the Civil War and slavery ended, the question of African American's freedom did not. African Americans had been given their freedom from slavery but not their freedom from segregation. Sitting apart on a bus or not being able to drink out of the same water fountain was humiliating, but nothing was more painful than being refused a decent education. No matter how much they argued or how long they complained, black families had to send their children to all-black schools, no matter how far away it was from their homes. These restrictions against African Americans were finally released by the Supreme Court after many lawyers thousands of people pushed against them.
From the mid 1950's on, several Supreme Court decisions were made and federal laws passed that forbade segregation in voting, education, and the use of public facilities. These decisions also prohibited job discrimination in federally funded programs. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a decision that changed the way students went to school. At the end of the Brown v. Board of Education case, the Supreme Court declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" (Morrison 19). Chief Justice Earl Warren stated, "We conclude that in the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place" (Somervill 1).
The Brown v. Board of Education case originated from Linda Brown, a seven-year-old second grader in Topeka, Kansas. Linda's father...
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