In recognition of the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education
NAACP and Esri
A landmark case
Linda Brown Smith, Ethel Louise Belton Brown, Harry Briggs, Jr., and Spottswood Bolling, Jr. during press conference at Hotel Americana
The segregation of public schools was a common practice throughout many decades of U.S. history. During the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, Congress passed three constitutional amendments to protect newly-freed Black Americans. While racial segregation was forbidden in some regions, in other areas, namely the southern states, racial segregation was enforced by law.
The transition to a more diverse and inclusive public education system was fueled by families, activists, and the NAACP who used litigation to make sure that all students were afforded access to an equitable education. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. The ruling was a pivotal point students, educators, and the ongoing fight for civil rights.
We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. . .
Decades in the making
To better understand why the Brown ruling was pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement, it’s important understand its historical context. Among the major events leading up to the ruling were:
1865–1870
Civil War ends; 13th Amendment abolishes human enslavement; Reconstruction begins, 14th and 15th Amendments ratified
A excerpt of newspaper headline that says Union Victory
1896
United States Supreme Court rules, in Plessy v. Ferguson, that separate but equal facilities (transportation, schools, restrooms, and more) were constitutional.
A historical court document of the judgement in Plessy v. Ferguson
1938
State of Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada, rules that states providing education to White students must provide it to Black students.
A close-up image of a young black man wearing a suit looking at the camera
1950
McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents; U.S. Supreme Court rules that different treatment in education violates the 14th Amendment
A classroom of white students with their desks lined up in neat rows has a lone black student tucked into a corner during a class.
1950-1954
NAACP organizes court cases across the country that are consolidated into the United States Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education
1954
Brown v. Board of Education declared codified segregation unconstitutional
1955-1965
The Civil Rights movement builds on the momentum of the victory
Separate is not equal
In 1935 a group of people supported by the NAACP began challenging the constitutionality of Plessy v. Ferguson. The case, originally filed in Louisiana, upheld the state court’s ruling stating that separate but equal facilities were acceptable. While schools were not the focus in that case, the ruling affected all aspects of everyday life, from using public transportation to pursuing educational opportunities. Separate but equal was declared legal.
But in reality, conditions were rarely equal, particularly in the realm of education.
During the protracted battle against Plessy v. Ferguson, activists attacked the “separate but equal” conditions which were clearly evident in many schools around the country.
A black person standing next to an outdoor drinking fountain that has a sign that says “colored” posted next to it on a tree.
A black man wearing a hat takes a drink from a water jug that is labeled as “colored” and signs on the wall point to rooms for white women and colored women.
Black children trying to attend school regularly encountered barriers, including:
Being assigned to schools far from their homes, even if a White school was nearer
Often being denied transportation while White students had access to school buses
Being forced to tolerate poor conditions ranging from facilities to textbooks
Being victims of unequal spending on education
Over the years many lawsuits were filed challenging unfair conditions, most of which were dismissed. However, a few cases did gain traction with victories in lower courts; five of these cases were consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, which ultimately led to racial segregation being declared unconstitutional.
While the Brown case is justly famous, less well-known are the many people who were active in the fight, and who played pivotal roles leading up to the ruling that ended segregation in the United States.
Pivotal Places
Hockessin Colored school #107C -
Hockessin, Delaware
In 1951, eight-year-old Shirley Bulah was forced to walk two miles to an all-Black school while buses for White students passed her home in the small town of Hockessin, Delaware. Shirley’s parents asked the Governor’s office for school bus transportation equal to what the White students had. Their request was denied.
In 1952, Sarah Bulah, assisted by attorney Louis Redding, filed Bulah v. Gebhart, seeking admittance to a nearby White school that provided transportation, instead of pursuing the original request to the governor seeking equal transportation opportunities.
The Delaware Court of Chancery, under Chancellor Collins J. Seitz, determined that the educational opportunities for Black students were inferior, that the separate facilities were not equal, and that the students should be admitted to White schools. The school board appealed the ruling, which was later consolidated as one of the Brown v. Board of Education cases.
Hockessin Colored School #107C closed in 1959 and has since been turned into a community center.
Claymont Community Center –
Claymont, DE
In 1951, a group of Claymont Black students were forced to travel an hour by bus each way to attend Howard High School in Wilmington instead of attending a White school with available space and better facilities in their own community.
The Black students petitioned to attend nearby White schools and, as expected, were denied admission. Attorney Louis Redding filed a lawsuit on behalf of the group, including Ethel Belton’s parents.
Chancellor Collins J. Seitz heard Gebhart v. Belton along with Bulah v. Gebhart and determined the students should be admitted to the White schools. The school board appealed the ruling to the Delaware Supreme Court which upheld Chancellor’s Seitz’s earlier decision. The case was later consolidated with the Brown case. However, Claymont High School, along with Arden School, were the first in Delaware to desegregate and admit Black students.
Howard High School of Technology – Wilmington, DE
Howard High School
Founded in 1867 and rebuilt in1928, Howard High School was the first public secondary school in Delaware open to Black students that provided a complete high school education. While students did have access to buses, they endured rides of an hour or more to attend the overcrowded school which lacked resources and facilities available to White students in the same communities these students were being bused from. The overcrowded and underfunded high school was symbolic of larger systemic issues across the country.
John Philip Sousa Junior High School – Washington, DC
In September of 1950, 11 Black students who had been assigned to overcrowded and poorly equipped Black schools made a strategic attempt to enroll in the newly built, all-White school. As expected, they were denied enrollment.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of the Black students, including Spottswood Bolling, challenged federally enforced segregation in Washington D.C. on the premise that segregation is discrimination and violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The case was initially argued in 1952 and later included with the Brown v. Board of Education cases.
R.R. Moton Museum – Farmville, VA
Birthplace of the Student Civil Rights Movement
In 1951,16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns initiated a walkout in protest of the terrible conditions for Black students at Moton high school. Overcrowding was so severe that many students were attending classes in poorly-built temporary buildings. The buildings were plagued by leaky roofs and inadequate heating, among many other problems — in stark contrast to conditions at the all-White high school a few blocks away.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed suit on behalf of the students — the only suit spearheaded by students — challenging whether segregation was constitutional, and it was integrated into the Browncase. After the ruling, the Prince Edward County school board shuttered the public schools instead of integrating them. They stayed closed for five years before another Supreme Court case compelled them to reopen.
Brown v. Board National Historic Site – Topeka, KS
In 1951, when Oliver Brown tried to enroll his daughter, Linda, in the public school nearest to their home, the school district refused. Being denied enrollment to the school was confusing for Linda, considering the Brown family lived in a mixed neighborhood in Topeka, Kansas.
Linda was then sent to a Black school that was farther away from their home. The Brown family and twelve other Black families filed a class-action lawsuit organized by the NAACP, arguing that segregation of Black students was unconstitutional. This is the namesake suit that included nearly 200 plaintiffs.
Clarendon District 1 Community Resource Center – Summerton, SC
A historical photo shows two large, adjacent one-story brick buildings, each with a pitched roof. One of the buildings has a chimney with smoke coming from it.
In 1895, South Carolina adopted a state constitution mandating racially segregated schools, resulting in disparities in resources between White and Black students in Summerton. White schools had modern amenities like electricity and running water, different classrooms for each grade level, and transportation to and from school. The Black students were given a one-room shack without indoor plumbing and no buses. Some students walked up to seven miles each way.
Though building facilities were unequal, the initial petition asked for a school bus for the Black students; the White school, by contrast, had at least 30 buses. The petition was ignored, and attorneys Harold Boulware and Thurgood Marshall filed a lawsuit, which was dropped because of a technicality.
Clarendon District 1 Offices – Summerton, SC
A one story brick and tan stucco building with a blue sloping roof and a United States flag on a pole near the main entrance to the building.
The NAACP regrouped and filed Briggs v. Elliott in May of 1950. The team decided to switch tactics mid-trial at the urging of Federal Judge Julius Waties Waring, who dismissed that case so it could be refiled. In December of 1950, the suit attacked segregation itself instead of arguing the issue of separate but equal.
The panel of judges denied the plaintiffs' suit to desegregate and instead ordered the school board to equalize the schools. While this decision was in the appeal process to the U.S. Supreme Court, South Carolina Governor James F. Byrne tried to combat the lawsuit by building equalizing schools for Black students with the intention of preserving segregation. Scott’s Branch High School, which is now a community center, as among the “equalizer” schools.
When segregation was ruled unconstitutional, in 1966 Clarendon County officials closed Summerton High School, which is a few blocks away from the current community center, to avoid integration. White parents sent their children to a newly built private school while the Black students continued to attend Scott’s Branch High School. Today the former Summerton High School building serves as administrative offices for the school district.
The ruling
These people and places were catalysts for the legal battle for desegregation. It was a long fight, with many hurdles to removing legal barriers to equality. But on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court began dismantling segregation with its Brown v. Board of Education ruling:
Seventy years ago, the Supreme Court issued its seminal unanimous ruling outlawing segregation in our nation's public schools. The ruling represented a transformative affirmation of racial equality and became a foundational principle of our legal system and our democracy.
While Brown v. Board of Education ended the legal battle, the cultural battle was another story. In 1957, Virgil Blossom, the superintendent at Little Rock Central High School, attempted to integrate the school by recruiting volunteers from Black high schools. The Little Rock Nine, as they were known, attempted to attend school, and were met with hostility and resistance. During a tumultuous year, one of the senior year students, Ernest Green, graduated.
The next year, public schools in Little Rock closed for a year to prevent further integration. Eventually, schools in the United States integrated, though many of them doing so despite considerable resistance.
NAACP continues the fight for equality...
The battle isn’t over. While legally Brown v Board of Education declared segregation unconstitutional, recent attacks on history, education, and diversity have left some schools separate and inequitable. The United States still experiences significant segregation, much of it related to wealth and social class divides.
While we’ve come a long way, there’s still much progress to be made in the fight for civil rights. You can help be part of the fight to bring equality to the U.S. by supporting the NAACP.
