Brown v. Board of Education

Before Brown

To understand the significance of the Brown case, it is imperative to examine from a historical perspective African Americans' status in society, as well as in education. Throughout history, significant historical and legal events have served as markers for addressing racial inequality and discrimination. Contention surrounding Black education in the United States can be connected to various forms of discrimination that began in 1619 and have continued to the present day.

While the Emancipation Proclamation issued in 1863 freed the slaves, the practical effect was virtually nonexistent in southern states. Even with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, which abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which granted citizenship to African Americans and guaranteed equal protection under the law, covert and overt forms of discrimination and inequality persisted. Throughout the 1860s in the South, the law forbade the education of slaves, while many northern communities refused to allow Blacks to attend public schools.

The struggle for Black education has been lengthy and formidable. Three significant legal cases were argued before Brown that reinforced inequality and segregation in the United States. In 1849, in the case of Roberts v. the City of Boston, the Massachusetts Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregated schools were permissible under the state's constitution, under the justification that segregated schools benefited both races. This case would later serve the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Less than a decade later, in 1857, came the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford. Although Scott had been a resident of Illinois for 4 years, his status in the South remained that of property. The ruling that stated African Americans were “so far inferior that they had no rights which the White man was bound to respect” reaffirmed the disposition of both northerners and southerners.

Prior to Brown v. Board of Education, the legal justification for racial segregation was maintained by the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson. The arrest of Homer Plessy in 1892 led to two appeals, reaching the Supreme Court in 1896. The plaintiff argued that provision of separate facilities on a railroad car was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment, because it denied Plessy his equal-protection rights, and the Thirteenth Amendment, because it perpetuated essential features of slavery. In its ruling, the Court adjudicated the Louisiana state law that mandated separate but equal accommodations for Blacks and Whites on intrastate railroads. Eight of the nine justices contended that neither amendment was applicable to Plessy's case. The Thirteenth Amendment, the justices argued, protected political equality, not social equality. The ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson provided legal justification for Jim Crow laws while fortifying notions of White supremacy and Black inferiority.

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