ON THIS DAY

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May 17, 1954

Brown v Board of Education

The Brown v. Board of Education case, decided by the US Supreme Court on May 17, 1954, was a landmark civil rights decision that ruled state-sponsored segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The Supreme Court unanimously concluded that segregation in public education violated the 14th Amendment, specifically the equal protection clause.

The case involved several separate cases from different states, including Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. The plaintiffs in these cases sought admission to public schools on a nonsegregated basis.

The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, delivered a unanimous ruling that segregated public schools were inherently unequal and violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. This decision overturned the doctrine of  "separate but equal" established in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, which had allowed segregation in various aspects of American life. Brown v. Board of Education was a major victory for the civil rights movement and a catalyst for further legal and social change. The ruling established the principle that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, regardless of whether the facilities are equal in quality.

While Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark decision, the implementation of desegregation was not without its challenges. Many areas, particularly in the South, faced resistance and delays in implementing the ruling.

From the Court’s judgment:

To separate them [black children} from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone. The effect of this separation on their educational opportunities was well stated by a finding in the Kansas case ... :

"Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system."

Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time of Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority. Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected.

— Brown, 347 U.S. at 494 (alterations and footnotes omitted).

The members of the U.S. Supreme Court that on May 17, 1954, ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.

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