Civil Rights: Brown Vs. Board Of Education

Name Institutional Affiliation Course Title/Code Instructor Date Civil Rights Essay Despite the numerous amendments that sought to grant equal rights to all men, African American continued to be treated differently in various parts especially in the south where slavery had just ended. Various state legislatures passed laws, which encouraged racial segregation by decreeing that whites and people of color could not share the same public facilities. The laws that would later be known as Jim Crow laws remained in place until late 1890s. In 1892, Homer Plessy, an African American, first challenged these laws by refusing to give up his bus seat to a white as required by Louisiana state laws (National Park Service). His ensuing arrest, the escalation of the case to the Supreme Court and ruling against Plessy in 1896 paved way for other successive court rulings challenging racial segregation. Perhaps, the most influential cases was the Brown v. Board of Education 1954 case which sought to challenge segregation in public schools. This particular case led to the ultimate abolishment of segregation in public facilities. After his daughter was denied admission in Topeka’s all white elementary schools, Oliver Brown filed a class action suit accusing the Board of Education of racial segregation. The plaintiff accused the Board of Education of violating the “equal protection clause” as provided in the 14th amendment of the constitution (United States Courts). The Kansas district court while acknowledging that segregation in public schools had a negative effect on colored children endorsed the separate but equal dogma (Strauss). Through NAACP legal defense and educational fund, the plaintiff appealed the case in the Supreme Court. The case would be combined with four other cases under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Despite the fact that the defense team raised a number of issues, the main i...