Brown vs. Board of Education essays

Brown vs. Board of Education essays Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was the landmark case that resulted in desegregating of public schools. On May 17,1954, the United States Supreme Court issued an unanimous decision that it was unconstitutional, violating the Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection clause) to separate children in public schools based on their race. Advocates of desegregation were certain that racially mixed schools, more than any other institutions , would facilitate the cherished American dream of equal opportunity. In this belief they reflected long standing assumptions about the powerful role of education in life. In many instances the schools for African American children were substandard facilities with outdated textbooks and often no basic school supplies. What was not in question was the dedication and qualification of the African American teachers and principals assigned to these schools.(www.hrcr.org/docs/usconstitution/brown2.html, p.1) Black schools were not only inferior in terms of facilities. As Peterson emphasized, segregation was as damaging as inequality. It shunted black students from the mainstream, isolating them and depriving them from association or competition with whites. Separation of African American children from others of similar age and qualifications because of their race "generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.""(Gollnick,p.169) As early as1849 with the Roberts case in Boston, Massachusetts, African American parents challenged the system of education in the United States which mandated separate schools for their children based on race.(1) There have been six cases involving the "separate but equal" doctrine in the field of public education in American courts, prior to Brown case in 1954. (Carson,p.69) In Cumming v. County Board of Education, 175 U.S. 528, Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 ...