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)