WWTnotes

**"We Were There" First Hand Account Notes - //Brown v. Board of Education//**

 * “Linda had to leave home at 7:40 AM to get to school by nine. She had to go through the dangerous Rock Island switching yards to get to the bus pickup point by eight o’clock, but often the bus was late and many times she had to wait through the cold, the rain, the snow until the bus got there. It was a thirty minute ride to school, and so if the bus was on time, Linda got to wait, sometimes as long as a half an hour – in front of the school until it opened at nine.” Oliver Brown in his testimony in lower court
 * The Sumner School was only seven blocks away
 * District Court ruled against Brown and the others, deciding that separate schools were equal
 * Not the first desegregation suit in schools – it was actually one of a collection of cases brought up together to the Supreme Court, but since Brown was first in the alphabet, it is listed first
 * Collective cases made the issue much larger and represented more students
 * Thurgood Marshall, an NAACP lawyer took over the case – he was very successful in arguing in front of the Court, winning 29 of 32 cases
 * Had to prove that segregated schools resulted in an inferior education for black children – that separate was unequal
 * Psychologists conducted tests of black children using dolls to evaluate their “self-awareness” – and black children responded that they felt inferior. Psychologist Mamie Clark remarked that the children are “subjected to an obviously inferior status in the society in which they live, have been definitely harmed in the development of their personalities; that the signs of instability in their personalities are clear.”
 * The evidence demonstrated the negative impact of segregation – the only way to overthrow Plessy v. Ferguson and separate but equal doctrine
 * Newly appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren wanted an unanimous decision – he wanted to persuade southern opponents to act in regards to the decision
 * 5 justices wanted to overturn Plessy, but 4 justices were not so convinced
 * Warren found the middle ground – the decision would be that separate but equal facilities were unconstitutional under the 14th amendment, but the desegregation would move slowly
 * The decision, in effect, wiped out segregation in public schools across the nation and reversed the separate but equal doctrine that had made blacks second class citizens.
 * Warren in the majority decision – "We conclude that the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." – it was a violation of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed in the 14th Amendment
 * A second decision, called Brown II, stated that schools should be desegregated with “all deliberate speed”
 * Desegregation was slow in coming, and there was intense opposition in the south
 * Possible negative impact – black principals wouldn’t get jobs in integrated schools, blacks would be forced to bus because white students wouldn’t want to go to black schools
 * Groups in the south opposed the decision, like the KKK and the White Citizens Council
 * Politicians would drag out old Jim Crow laws or use illegal means
 * The decision gave black Americans a legal backing to challenge segregation
 * Boyd, Herb. We Shall Overcome.Naperville, Illinois. Sourcebooks. 2004.**

Defenders of segregation in the case stated: May 31, 1955 - The Supreme Court issues //Brown II.// This ruling provides the basis for implementing public school desegregation. The Court sets no deadline for ending segregated public education and orders the states to integrate their schools with “all deliberate speed.”
 * The Constitution did not require white and African American children to attend the same schools.
 * Social separation of blacks and whites was a regional custom; the states should be left free to regulate their own social affairs.
 * Segregation was not harmful to black people.
 * Whites were making a good faith effort to equalize the two educational systems. But because black children were still living with the effects of slavery, it would take some time before they were able to compete with white children in the same classroom.
 * Opponents of segregation claimed:
 * In //Plessy v. Ferguson,// the Supreme Court had misinterpreted the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal protection of the laws did not allow for racial segregation.
 * The Fourteenth Amendment allowed the government to prohibit any discriminatory state action based on race, including segregation in public schools.
 * The Fourteenth Amendment did not specify whether the states would be allowed to establish segregated education.
 * Psychological testing demonstrated the harmful effects of segregation on the minds of African American children.
 * Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group...Any language in contrary to this finding is rejected. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. [[image:http://americanhistory.si.edu/Brown/images/history/quote_end.gif]]—Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court ||
 * [[image:http://americanhistory.si.edu/Brown/images/history/quote_start.gif]]The highest court in the land, the guardian of our national conscience, has reaffirmed its faith—and the undying American faith—in the equality of all men and all children before the law. [[image:http://americanhistory.si.edu/Brown/images/history/quote_end.gif]]— //The New York Times,// May 18, 1954 ||  ||
 * [[image:http://americanhistory.si.edu/Brown/images/history/quote_start.gif]]The highest court in the land, the guardian of our national conscience, has reaffirmed its faith—and the undying American faith—in the equality of all men and all children before the law. [[image:http://americanhistory.si.edu/Brown/images/history/quote_end.gif]]— //The New York Times,// May 18, 1954 ||  ||


 * Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education. Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Online.** [|**http://americanhistory.si.edu/Brown/index.html**]**.**


 * University cases had been won in the past. some by Thurgood Marshall - many of the cases dealt with a "badge of inferiority" trhough separation
 * The NAACP Legal Defense Fund grouped together five separate lawsuits because they were similar - they collecively became known as Brown v. Board of Education
 * Black children has identified white skinned dolls as "the nice doll", "the doll you like best", or "the doll you most like to play with"
 * The brown doll was often chosen as a response to "give me the doll that looks bad"
 * Marshall wanted to show that the spearation of blacks and whites was damaging
 * In the Supreme Court Marshall stated that the respurces and schools weren't the issue - it was the segregation itself
 * Justices interrupted him many times, and one justice asked him what he meant by equal - he responded with the definition "equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place"
 * Marshall also argued that the issue wasn't if states had the rigt to segregate - it was if individual rights were violated by segregation.
 * The justices could not come to a decision right away, and asked the lawyers to come back and reargue the case
 * before the second argument, the court changed, as Chif Justice Vinson died of a heart attack and Earl Warren was appointed to replace him
 * Marshall continued to argue that the intent of the 14th Amendment was to prohibit discrimination, including racial segregation
 * in his closing argument, Marshall argued that the only way the court could uphold segregation was if they convincingly believed that blacks were inferior to whites and that they should be kept in conditions close to slavery
 * Marshall concluded with "And now is the time, we submit, that this court should make it clear that that is not what our Constitution stands for"
 * May 17, 1954 - Warren reads the Court's decision - Warren posed the question "Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities?
 * His answer - " We believe, unanimously, that it does. To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority 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
 * southern states were slow to comply with the Court's decision - only 2% of formerly segreated schools had been integrated by 1964
 * the decision was called a "potent catalyst of ambitions social change"
 * the Court used Broan as a prcedent in other civil rights cases to end separate but equal beyond the classroom
 * George, Charles. __Civil Rights - The Struggle for Black Equality.__ Words That Changed History. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2001.**