Brown vs. Board of Education

Brown vs. Board of Education

During the 1950’s the United States was dealing with racial and segregation problems that led to nothing but fighting and killing of many people. Within that issue of segregation the United States banned black and white students to go to the same schools. One family finally had enough and wanted a change. That family was the Brown’s and their case became known as ‘Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This case was among the most significant judicial turning points in the development of our country and helped to begin the change for all students and African American citizens.
The case originated because the family of the African American girl, Linda Brown, had to walk one mile to the bus stop so she could go to a ‘black’s only’ school when there was a ‘whites only’ school barely seven blocks from her home. In addition, the ‘black’s only’ school had overcrowded classroom, outdated textbooks, broken desks, and no school supplies for the students.
The case came to the Supreme Court in 1951 but, lawyers did not actually begin speaking until December 1952 and challenged the federal government’s law on segregation. Thurgood Marshall became the lawyer for the Brown’s and was an attorney for the NAACP. The biggest issue was that by having segregation in place, it denied African Americans their rights under the fourteenth amendment, which guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws. The family felt it was very unfair to continue denying their daughter things she deserved as a student and that the law should never have been passed because even though it was supposed to ‘equal but separate’ in reality it was far from it.
Another important part of this case was that the Supreme Court put five separate cases together under the Brown case because each case had the same idea and sought justice against segregation.
The following chief justice was on dock for this landmark case; Chief Justice Warren, who actually was appointed the year the case took...

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