The Brown Decision

Responding to lawsuits argued by NAACP lawyers, Brown v. Board of Education was the culmination of a series of Supreme Court rulings that chipped away at an earlier Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) permitting “separate but equal” public facilities.

DOCUMENT 1

Brown v. Board of Education, May 1954

In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court, declaring racial segregation in public education unconstitutional and explaining why.

It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, if the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right that must be made available to all on equal terms. . . .

We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities?

We believe that it does. . . . In McLaurin [a 1950 case], the Court, in requiring that a Negro admitted to a white graduate school be treated like all other students, again resorted to intangible considerations: “. . . his ability to study, to engage in discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession.” Such considerations apply with added force to children in grade and high schools. To separate them 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 ever to be undone.

We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Source: Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

DOCUMENT 2

Southern Manifesto on Integration, March 1956

The Brown decision outraged many southern whites. In 1956, more than one hundred members of Congress signed a manifesto pledging resistance to the ruling.

We regard the decision of the Supreme Court in the school cases as a clear abuse of judicial power. It climaxes a trend in the Federal judiciary undertaking to legislate . . . and to encroach upon the reserved rights of the states and the people.

The original Constitution does not mention education. Neither does the Fourteenth Amendment nor any amendment. . . . The Supreme Court of the United States, with no legal basis for such action, undertook to exercise their naked judicial power and substituted their personal political and social ideas for the established law of the land.

This unwarranted exercise of power by the court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the states principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and negro races that have been created through ninety years of patient effort by the good people of both races. . . .

We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation.

Source: “Southern Manifesto on Integration,” Congressional Record, 84th Congress, 2nd Session, vol. 102, pt. 4 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1956), 4459–60.

In the face of white hostility, black children carried the burden of implementing the Brown decision, as these accounts testify.

DOCUMENT 3

A High School Boy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1957

I like it a whole lot better than the colored school. You have a chance to learn more and you have more sports. I play forward or guard on the basketball team, only I don’t get to participate in all games. Some teams don’t mind my playing. Some teams object not because of the fellows on the team, but because of the people in their community. Mostly it’s the fans or the board of education that decides against me. . . . The same situation occurs in baseball. I’m catcher, but the first game I didn’t get to participate in. A farm club of the major league wrote the coach that they were interested in seeing me play so maybe I’ll get to play the next time.

Source: Dorothy Sterling, Tender Warriors (New York: Hill and Wang, 1958), 83. Copyright © 1958 by Hill and Wang.

DOCUMENT 4

A High School Girl in the Deep South, May 1966

The first day a news reporter rode the bus with us. All around us were state troopers. In front of them were federal marshals. When we got to town there were lines of people and cars all along the road. A man without a badge or anything got on the bus and started beating up the newspaper reporter. . . . When we got to the school the students were all around looking through the windows. The mayor said we couldn’t come there because the school was already filled to capacity. We turned around and the students started yelling and clapping. When we went back [after obtaining a court order] there were no students there at all. [The white students did not return, so the six black students finished the year by themselves.] The shocking thing was during the graduation ceremonies. All six of the students got together to make a speech. After we finished, I looked around and saw three teachers crying. The principal had tears in his eyes and he got up to make a little speech about us. He said at first he didn’t think he would enjoy being around us. You could see in his face that he was really touched.

Source: In Their Own Words: A Student Appraisal of What Happened after School Desegregation (Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, 1966), 17–18.

DOCUMENT 5

A High School Girl in the Deep South, May 1966

I chose to go because I felt that I could get a better education here. I knew that the [black] school that I was then attending wasn’t giving me exactly what I should have had. . . . As far as the Science Department was concerned, it just didn’t have the chemicals we needed and I just decided to change. When I went over the students there weren’t very friendly and when I graduated they still weren’t. They didn’t want us there and they made that plain, but we went there anyway and we stuck it out.

Source: In Their Own Words: A Student Appraisal of What Happened after School Desegregation (Washington, D.C.: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, 1966), 44.

Questions for Analysis

RECOGNIZE VIEWPOINTS: What reasons did the Supreme Court give in favor of desegregation? What reasons did black students give for wanting to attend integrated schools? How do these reasons differ?

ANALYZE THE EVIDENCE: On what grounds did signers of the “Southern Manifesto” argue that the Supreme Court decision violated the Constitution?

CONSIDER THE CONTEXT: Why did President Eisenhower initially resist desegregation, and what steps did he eventually take to support integration?