Browse Exhibits (1 total)

In the 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in the public school system was "inherently unequal." The case was brought forward by Thurgood Marshall as a class action lawsuit "on behalf of black schoolchildren and their families in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware, seeking court orders to compel school districts to let blacks students attend white public schools" (McBride, 2006). According to the nine justices, segregated schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment which prohibits states from denying citizens equal protection of the laws. This ruling repudiated the "separate but equal" doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 and legally terminated de jure segregation in public school facilities. However, it did not abolish Jim Crow laws in the south which had a significant impact on progress of school integration. 

This exhibit will focus on the aftermath of the Brown v. Board ruling in various public school districts and the work of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),u nder James Farmer's leadership, as they pushed to integrate schools in the hostile south and oblivious north. The primary goals of this research are to highlight the experiences of the African American schoolchildren who pioneered the school desegregation movement and to describe the social and legal roadblocks which hindered successful integration of public schools during the Civil Rights Era. 

Sources: 

McBride, Alex, "Brown v. Board of Education," 2006. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html