Brown vs. Board Of Education :: Teaching Education

Brown vs. Board Of Education As the Civil War ended and Slavery did, too, the question of African American’s freedom did not. African Americans had been given their freedom from slavery but not their freedom from segregation. In 1896 after the Plessy vs. Ferguson court case, the Supreme Court found that segregation, â€Å"separate but equal†, in public facilities was not against the Constitution. â€Å"Separate schools for blacks and whites became a basic rule in southern society.† All that was about to change. In Topeka, Kansas there was a little girl by the name of Linda Brown. She had to be driven five and a half miles to a black school when she lived four blocks from a public school. â€Å"The school was not full and she met all of the requirements to attend – all but one that is. Linda Brown was black. And blacks weren’t allowed to go to white children’s schools.† That was a controversial issue among blacks. In 1954 thirteen parents filed a class action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka in hope for equal education opportunities for their children. That and the desegregation period was the idea behind the case. It was the first challenge of the â€Å"separate but equal† ruling had been challenged. The thirteen parents were backed by many African American community leaders, the NAACP, and the NAACP’s lawyer Thurgood Marshall. However, against them were pretty much the whole south, many elected officials of Congress, and the Governor of Alabama - George Wallace. On May 7, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against segregation and was unconstitutional because it violated the fourteenth amendment by separating them because of the color of their skin. The decision a victory proved of significant importance. Few blacks and eventually many started attending non-segregated public schools. It proved to be Thurgood Marshall’s greatest victory and in 1967 he was appointed as the first black member of the Supreme Court.