Works Cited

Pictures:
"Segregated School West Memphis Arkansas." Remembering Brown: Silence, Loss, Rage, and Hope. Web. 20 May 2011. http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/remembering-brown-silence-loss-rage-and-hope.

"Linda Brown with her parents." How the Civil Rights Movement Worked. Web. 19 May 2011. http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/civil-rights-movement2.htm.

"African American Students." Top 10 Supreme Court Cases. Web. 19 May 2011. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/10/22/09aei.h28.html.

" Stock Image." LINDA BROWN, YOU ARE NOT ALONE: The Brown V. Board of Education Decision. Web. 18 May 2011. http://www.abebooks.com/LINDA-BROWN-ALONE-Board-Education-Decision/967581345/bd.

"Brief for Appellants in Brown vs Board of Education." With an Even Hsnd, Brown vs Board at Fifty. Web. 18 May 2011. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-brown.html.

"Civil Rights Movement for Brown v. Board of Education." Why Drop Out. Web. 19 May 2011. http://whybeahighschooldropout.blogspot.com/2011/05/brown-v-board-of-education.html.

"Newspaper." Segregation in Classroom. Web. 18 May 2011. http://umfmarcy.wikispaces.com/Brown+vs+Board.

"Remembering the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that desegregated U.S. public schools." Brown vs. Board of Education: 50 years later. Web. 20 May 2011. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-brownvboard-gallery,0,7343981.storygallery.

"Images of Central Nine and Protesters." Little Rock 9 . Web. 20 May 2011. <://www.cnn.com/US/9709/24/little.rock>.

"Ernest Green standing outside Central High School stadium on graduation night; May 29, 1958." Web. 22 May 2011. http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/media-detail.aspx?mediaID=7064.

"Remembering the Little Rock Nine." Alexander Russo's This Week in Education. Web. 22 May 2011. <http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2010/02/photo-remembering-the-little-rock-nine.html>.

Video:
"Brown V. Board of Education." You Tube. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2XHob_nVbw>.

Web Pages:
Cozzens, Lisa. (1995). Brown v Board of Education. Retrieved February 4, 2008, from http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html

National Center for Public Policy Research. (2008). Supreme Court of the United States, Brown v Board of Education, 347. February 4, 2008. http://www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html

"The Little Rock Nine." The Encyclopedia of Arkansaw History and Culture. N.p., 9/9/2010. Web. 21 May 2011. <http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=723>.

The End Does Justify the Means....... Sometimes

The Little Rock Nine suffered much humiliation and harassment while attending Little Rock High School.  Although they gained entrance, white students continued to try to get them to leave.  Events were so bad that each student had to have a guard from the army assinged to them. Although this helped, the guard was not able to be with them at all times.  "The other eight students remained at Central until the end of the school year. On May 27, 1958, Ernest Green became Central’s first black graduate. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. attended his graduation ceremony. Green later told reporters, “It’s been an interesting year. I’ve had a course in human relations first hand.”  ("Encyclopedia of Arkansaw History and Culture")       

  ("Ernest Green standing outside Central High School stadium on graduation night; May 29, 1958")

In this case, all of the suffering, harrassment, physical and emotional abuse was worth it.  The END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS!

The Little Rock Nine made their way in the world.  They became teachers, journalists, accounts for the department of defense, and managing partners for Lehman Brothers.  On September 26, 1997 each of them walked through the doors of Little Rock High School to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a historical event.  They were greeted by the Govenor of Arkansas, and the President of the United States.
                                              
                                       ("Remembering the Little Rock Nine")

The Little Rock Nine......

                                      ("Images of Central Nine and Protesters")

Monday, September 23, 1957, nine black students attempted to attend Little Rock High School.  These students were met by angry mobs of white students who did not want black students in there school. Govenor Orval Faubus initailly prevented the nine students from attending the school.  Intervention from President Dwight D. Eisenhower was required when he had to send in the US Army 101st Airborn division ion to escourt the students into school. 

This day is one of the most significant events in the African American Civil Rights Movement.

The Public Responds........

The decision of the Supreme Court threw the Black American community into a frenzy.  People were cheering in the streets, celebrating a new found liberty.  The story continued.  Although in the case of Brown v. The Board of Education ruled for school desegregation, not all states and communities followed the ruling. The ruling turned into more confrontation and conflict over the next few years

                                           ("Brown V. Board of Education")

Basis for The Decision.......

("Remembering the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that desegregated U.S. public schools")

Chief Justice Warren and the justices of the Supreme Court cited several points when making the decision in favor of Brown and against the Board of Education.

"a) The history of the Fourteenth Amendment is inconclusive as to its intended effect on public education.

(b) The question presented in these cases must be determined not on the basis of conditions existing when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, but in the light of the full development of public education and its present place in American life throughout the Nation.

(c) Where a State has undertaken to provide an opportunity for an education in its public schools, such an opportunity is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.

(d) Segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprives children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal.

(e) The "separate but equal" doctrine adopted in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 , has no place in the field of public education.

(f) The cases are restored to the docket for further argument on specified questions relating to the forms of the decrees." ( Nation Center for Public Policy Research)

The Case Is Heard Again...... And a Decision is made......

The case was reargued on December 8, 1953, one year after the Supreme Court heard it the first time. At this time the Supreme Court Justice Warren was determined to bring it to a conclusion.  Many years and events had gone by to bring the case to the point it was ready to be decisioned by the Supreme Court. 

On May 17, 1954 after three long years Supreme Court Justice Warren issued a decision, which received a vote of 9 in favor of Brown. Based on several points he sided against the Board of Education, basically saying that separate but equal had no place in public education, and that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal ( Nation Center for Public Policy Research)

                                               ("Newspaper")

And the Verdict Is In:

At the state level, the District Court, citing Plessy v. Ferguson, ruled in favor of the Board of Education.The three judges involved in the case stated that the white and negro schools were equal in the buildings, teachers, educational provisions as well as transportation.  Therefore, there was no need to the negro children to be allowed to attend the all white schools. This did not set well with the plaintiff's.  They appealed to the Supreme Court on October 1, 1951.  Finally, on December 2, 1952 the arguments were heard.  Both sided presented their case. For three days the lawyers provided the background, facts and arguments.  The judges discussed the issues for several months.  At that time requested the lawyers return for more questions.  During the questioning one of the justices died.  His replacement and many complications caused the case to last several years.
During this time protest continued and the topic was hot across the nations.

                                         

                        ("Civil Rights Movement for Brown v. Board of Education")

The Day Arrived ......

                           ("Brief for Appellants in Brown vs Board of Education")

Brown V. The Board of History was now underway. June of 1951 was the start of the case. Robert Carter was the lead attorney for the NAACP.


At the trial, the NAACP argued that a message was being sent to the colored children by keeping them in segregated schools.  The message was that they were not truly equal to the white children.   The witness for the NAACP Hugh W. Speer, testified that:


"...if the colored children are denied the experience in school of associating with white children, who represent 90 percent of our national society in which these colored children must live, then the colored child's curriculum is being greatly curtailed. The Topeka curriculum or any school curriculum cannot be equal under segregation."(Cozzins 1)


"The Board of Education's defense was that, because segregation in Topeka and elsewhere pervaded many other aspects of life, segregated schools simply prepared black children for the segregation they would face during adulthood. The board also argued that segregated schools were not necessarily harmful to black children; great African Americans such as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver had overcome more than just segregated schools to achieve what they achieved.”
(Cozzins 2)

                                         

The Case of Bolling v. Sharpe

As the previous mentioned, another case in 1950 was a brewing.  John Phillip Sousa Junior High School in Washington DC was the next  victim of  black enrollment attempts by a group of angry parents.


Scenes like this were becoming common all over the United States.  Questions on the validity of the Constitution, the Fourteenth amendment and other legalities were questioned and challenged


                                                                      

                                                                             

                                                                 

                                                   (" Stock Image")

                                                            

Those Who Came Before.......

Prior to Linda Brown’s father attempting to enroll her in a white school, there

were others who took that same path as well.  Some of those cases were

rolled together into the Supreme Court Case Brown V. The Board of Education.

One of those cases was as early as 1949.  Briggs v. Elliott The NAAP went to the residents of Clarendon County, South Carolina with the

Premise that they would launch a case against segregation in public schools if

at least 20 of them would come forward to participate. 

Harry Briggs and 19 others were found willing, and a class action lawsuit

was filed against the school board.

This case was eventually rolled into the Brown v. Board of Education by the Supreme Court

And There Were More ..........................

Brown’s family was just one of thirteen African-American families recruited in Topeka by the NAACP. In 1950, organization spent time enlisting plaintiffs nationwide to prepare to approach the Supreme Court on the “separate but equal” ruling that had permitted segregation in American schools for half a century.

So, to start off the experiment, in the fall of 1950, a group of families went to enroll their children in their neighborhood white schools, with the expectation that they would be rejected.  And the result is history……

Although history scripted that Linda Brown and her family single handedly change  the mind of the Supreme Court and turned the nation around, there were a whole cast of supporting characters accompanying her on her journey

                                          ("African American Students")

For the Greater Glory of the Children

("Linda Brown with her parents")

It is hard to believe that in the United States of America in 1950 a third grader named Linda Brown with her friends had to walk a dangerous walk through a railroad switching station to get to the bus which would take her to school.  That bus then traveled miles to a school where only black children went.  Even harder to believe, is that there was a school only several blocks away from her home. That school only allowed white children. As any good father would,  Oliver Brown then decided to register his daughter in the white children's school.  He was rejected.  He did not stop there, Mr. Brown contacted McKinley Burnett who was the head of the Topeka branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Colored children had the same rights as white children.  They deserved an education where they were able to go to the school of their choice and have the books, classes and opportunities that all white children were afforded.


And so the story began.

Separate But Equal

                                     ("Segregated School West Memphis Arkansas")

Back in the early 1950's black children in the United States were denied the opportunities to attend the same school as white children.  this practise was based on a decision made years before in the Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson.  The issue being "Can the states constitutionally enact legislation requiring persons of different races use "separate but equal" segregated facilities.  the answer was YES! They could.

Brown V. Board of Education

"This is a student project created for a United States History class.  The posts in this blog are of historical nature about a specific event in U.S. History.  This blog deals with the Supreme Court case of Brown V. Board of Education in 1954. This is not meant to be expert scholarship and there may be errors. This is a first attempt at learning something in more depth.  There has been a genuine effort to properly cite all pictures, quotes, information gathered in this research project.  For a list of sources see the final blog."