Brown V. Board of Education

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Brown v. Board of Education In the case Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that it was unconstitutional to have schools for black and white students separately. This decision overturned the previous one of Plessy v. Ferguson which allowed state-sponsored segregation. On May 17, 1954, the unanimous decision stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”. For more than 60 years the US had been filled with racial segregation. The case of Plessy v. Ferguson just endorsed this even more. They said that as long as they got treated equally, it didn’t matter if they were separate. Many people didn’t agree at all with this. This was just an excuse to keep both races separate. Even though they said people would get treated “equally”, it was all lies. The black people were getting inferior accommodations, services, and treatment. A class action suit was filed against the Board of Education of the city of Topeka, Kansas in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas in 1951. The plaintiffs consisted of thirteen parents of twenty children who attended the Topeka School District. They filed the suit hoping that the school district would change its policy of racial segregation. When 20 parents tried to enroll their kids in the schools closest to them, they were denied enrollment. These schools were segregated and were the same as the ones black kids were supposed to attend. Since they were not allowed enrollment, the case was taken to the Topeka Board of Education. They decided that they should attend their own schools because they were exactly the same when it came to the facility, treatment, and staff. The case was then taken to the Supreme Court along with 4 other similar cases. The way I feel about this case, is that the Supreme Court should have made the right choice since the Plessy v.

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