Background
As is a universally known fact about United States history, the institution of slavery was a central aspect of American society until the Union's victory in the Civil War. Consequently, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865, officially outlawing slavery. Shortly after, the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 both "strengthened" the rights of African Americans by mandating that no state deprive any citizen of " due process of law" and "equal protection of the law", and by prohibiting states from denying anyone the right to vote based on color, respectively. However, despite slavery officially being outlawed and these new amendments being enacted, the effects of racism and segregation continued to exert serious influence over life in America for many years to follow. African Americans continued to be discriminated against, especially in the South where many state legislatures passed laws in order to legally sustain segregation. These laws, commonly referred to as Jim Crow laws, declared that Blacks could not use the same public facilities as Whites, ride the same buses, or even attend the same schools. It would not be until 1892 that these laws would be directly challenged in court in the case of Plessy V. Ferguson. After being arrested for refusing to give his seat up to a White man on a train, Plessy used the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, in this monumental case the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against Plessy, which would thereby set the stage for the prolongation of discrimination and segregation in America for the years leading up the the Brown V. Board case.
Brown Vs. Board of education
In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in order to fight for the abolition of Jim Crow laws and for overall racial equality. Initially, the organization focused its efforts on trying to persuade Congress to pass legislature that would protect African Americans from lynchings and other similar racist crimes, but by mid 1930s it had changed its focus. Through the utilization of its Legal Defense and Education Fund, the NAACP began looking towards the courts in order to make strides to overcome legalized segregation. Two of the then-leaders of the organization, Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall, devised a plan to end Jim Crow laws by attacking their weak spot, which as it appeared to them was in the field of education. Though Houston stepped down in 1938 in order to resume working in private practice, Marshall stuck around to see his plan to fruition. Though he headed several other similar cases, by far the most important would be Brown. In 1951, thirteen Topeka, Kansas parents filed a lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education on behalf of their children. They asserted that the system of racial segregation in public schools across the country was unconstitutional, with schools not simply being "separate but equal", but rather the schools that their children were being forced to attend provided them with inferior accommodations, services, and treatment. As such, they were seeking for the school district to reverse its policies towards racial segregation in its schools.
Though simply named Brown V. Board of Education, the case as heard before the Supreme Court was actually an aggregation of five NAACP-sponsored cases. Though the facts of each of these cases were different, the central theme in all of them was the issue of state-sponsored racial segregation in public schools. Marshall himself represented the case in front of the Supreme Court, and cited that separate school systems for Blacks and Whites was inherently unequal and thus violated the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as citing sociological tests as evidence that the segregated school system frequently made Black children feel inferior to White children. Despite the fact that most of the Justices did want to declare segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional, they were unable to come to a solution by the end of the court's 1953 term. Upon rehearing the case later that year, they returned a unanimous decision declaring the segregation of schools to be unconstitutional, thereby overturning the ruling of the Plessy V. Ferguson case. This led to the eventual desegregation of all schools across the country, continued educational reform, and contributed to the overall fight for Civil Rights.
Though simply named Brown V. Board of Education, the case as heard before the Supreme Court was actually an aggregation of five NAACP-sponsored cases. Though the facts of each of these cases were different, the central theme in all of them was the issue of state-sponsored racial segregation in public schools. Marshall himself represented the case in front of the Supreme Court, and cited that separate school systems for Blacks and Whites was inherently unequal and thus violated the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as citing sociological tests as evidence that the segregated school system frequently made Black children feel inferior to White children. Despite the fact that most of the Justices did want to declare segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional, they were unable to come to a solution by the end of the court's 1953 term. Upon rehearing the case later that year, they returned a unanimous decision declaring the segregation of schools to be unconstitutional, thereby overturning the ruling of the Plessy V. Ferguson case. This led to the eventual desegregation of all schools across the country, continued educational reform, and contributed to the overall fight for Civil Rights.