Brown+V.+Board

//BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION//
 * What would break the back of Jim Crow America? What role did education play in the movement to desgregate America?**

**SETTING THE STAGE** - **[|Participate in The Road to Justice activity]**
 * Using the the links provided, analyze the landmark Supreme Court case //Brown v. Board of Education//. Cut and paste the information below into a new entry on your Unit 8 Online Notebook.** ||  ||=   ||
 * Using the the links provided, analyze the landmark Supreme Court case //Brown v. Board of Education//. Cut and paste the information below into a new entry on your Unit 8 Online Notebook.** ||  ||=   ||

__Make a bulleted list of the basic facts of the cases brought to the Supreme Court__
 * BASIC FACTS OF THE CASES (more than one) (check video, [|Link 1], [|Link 2], [|Link 3])**


 * School segregation was permitted by local option, but only in elementary schools.
 * African American parents and local activists from the NAACP challenged Topeka’s policy of segregated schooling.
 * Oliver Brown and 13 other parents from Topeka fought against segregation
 * Eight percent of the city’s residents were black.
 * A three-judge federal court ruled against the plaintiffs.
 * The plaintiffs’ appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
 * Oliver Brown wanted his daughter to go to a nearby white school because they had better books, a better school, etc.

__List the major arguments of the plaintiffs__
 * MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE PLAINTIFF (for integration) (check [|Link 1])**
 * 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.

__List the major arguments of the Defendants__
 * MAIN ARGUMENTS OF THE DEFENDANTS (for segregation) (check [|Link 1])**
 * 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.
 * States rights.

THE CHANGE IN THE COURT (leading to a decision) (check** [|**Link 1**]**)** __What important change happened, and what was its impact?__
 * In September 1953 Vinson died, and President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as chief justice. His leadership in producing a unanimous decision to overturn //Plessy //  changed the course of American history.

THE COURT DECISION (in your own words) (check** [|**Link 1**] **and Link 2)** __What did the Court decide?__ Earl Warren wrote the decision for the Court. He said that racial segregation of any kind deprived African Americans of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and to process under the Fifth Amendment.

**ENFORCING THE DECISION (discuss "with all deliberate speed) (Check [|Link 1] ** **)**  __What was the Court's statement about the enforcement of the decision? What happened to the enforcement?__ The decision declared the system of legal segregation unconstitutional. The Court ordered only that the states end segregation with "all deliberate speed." This is about how to enforce the ruling gave segregationists the opportunity to organize resistance. Segregationists played on the fears and prejudices of their communities and launched a militant campaign of resistance and defiance.

__What is the overall importance and legacy of__ //__Brown v. Board__//__?__ The African Americans wanted to be equal and the African American struggle soon spread across the country. Fifty years after the Brown decision, the movement has come to include racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, and other groups, each demanding equal opportunity.
 * THE IMPACT and LEGACY** **(Check** [|**Link 1**]**)**