EQ: What was the significance of the Brown vs. The Board of Education Supreme Court case?

1. EQ: What was the significance of the Brown vs. The Board of Education Supreme Court case?

2. What did a typical “colored” school look like?

3. Compare that to a typical “white” school…..

4. See the difference?

7. Who was “Brown” ? • Linda Brown had to walk farther to go to a “colored” school when she passed a “white” school everyday. • Her parents said “separate is not equal” because the schools were not equally equipped.

8. The Decision: A Landmark in American Justice • In 1952 the Supreme Court decided to hear school desegregation cases from across the country. When the trial began, everyone in the courtroom knew that the future of race relations in America hung in the balance. The attorneys for both sides believed that law and morality supported their arguments. • A victory by the plaintiffs would mean that the highest court in the land officially endorsed the ideal of equal opportunity, regardless of race. Defeat would mean that the Supreme Court continued to sanction a system of legal segregation based on the notion of racial inferiority. Smithsonian Institute 2009

9. Who was Thurgood Marshall? • “ The complete destruction of all enforced segregation is now in sight. . .We are going to insist on non-segregation in American public education from top to bottom—from law school to kindergarten. ” —Thurgood Marshall, 1950

10. Integrated schools….