Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 1:02PM Read the opinion here.
Issue. Is "separate but equal" with respect to public education permissible when children are separated in public schools on the basis of race?
Background. The case was a consolidation of several class action suits challenging segregation in public education as long as the education was "separate but equal" as outlined in Plessy. The various Courts upheld the segregated school system, except the case in Delaware where the court in that case held the schools were not equal. The Supreme Court, on appeal, ruled that segregated public education violated the equal protection clause.
Court's Analysis. The reality was the many segregated schools were not "separate but equal" as black schools were far inferior to white schools. For the sake of argument, the Supreme Court assumed that such schools to be equal based on objective criteria - amount spent per student, curriculum, supplies, etc. - and still found that public education could never be "separate but equal."
Unlike the decision in Plessy, the Court recognized that segregated public schools marked black students as inferior and deprived them of educational opportunities afforded to whites, regardless of equal resources. The Court notes:
Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon 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. . .Segregation, with the sanction of law, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of the benefits they would receive in a [racially] integrated school system.
The Court also rejected arguments based on whether the authors of the 14th Amendment intended integrated schools. Opinions varied and public education in the South was non-existent at the time. Further, our understanding of the psychological developments of children has evolved since the 14th Amendment and Plessy. Therefore, such findings, while instructive, are not conclusive.
As far as the Court was concerned, in the realm of public education, there can be no "separate but equal". Segregated schools are inherently unequal.
Afterword. In a subsequent case, Brown II, the Court decided that de-segregation was to occur "with all deliberate speed." That phrase led to a lengthy period of time for the integration of public schools.