How Brown Vs. Board of Education Transformed American Education System
This week commemorates the 64th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling that segregated schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, despite its great success, Brown had unintended consequences, which still play out today.
One of the most important was the impact it had on school desegregation. This project only occurred after some time, and it still needs to be completed.
How It Changed the Way Students Learned
After the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was unequal, many schools began desegregating. It was not a quick process, but it was a necessary one. Desegregation allowed students to learn from a diverse group of people. It also allowed them to develop strong bonds with their peers and teachers.
The court case that changed how students learned began in 1951 when Oliver Brown’s school board denied his daughter admission to the school closest to their home and required her to ride a bus to a separate, white school. The family filed a lawsuit, and a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled against the parents (Cozzens, 1998).
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the policy of “separate but equal”, deeming it unconstitutional. This decision resulted from the tireless efforts of civil rights activists and members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who fought for justice in a lengthy legal battle.
Although desegregation was crucial in the fight for equality, it did not eliminate racism and other stereotypes that still affect American education. For example, the Moberly, Missouri district closed a black school, and some teachers were fired. Most of the remaining teachers were white and did not have as much classroom experience or college credits as their African-American counterparts.
How It Changed the Way Teachers Learned
The Supreme Court decision in Brown vs Board of Education was one of the most historic rulings in U.S. history and a crucial catalyst for the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s. The 1954 ruling struck down the legality of segregation in public schools, declaring that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and that laws imposing such facilities violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
So what is Brown vs Board of Education all about? The story of Brown vs. Board of Education began with the efforts of members of the local NAACP chapter in Topeka, Kansas. Reverend Oliver Brown and 12 other local black parents attempted to enroll their children in the all-white neighborhood school closest to their homes. Still, they were refused enrollment and redirected to a segregated city school far away.
NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall argued that the separate schools were inherently unequal and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. He recruited the nation’s best attorneys—many of whom would later serve as Justices on the Supreme Court—to join his legal team, including future district court judges Robert Carter and Jack Greenberg and future Justice Spottswood Robinson.
Before Brown, teachers in segregated schools were often paid less than their white counterparts and taught with textbooks handed down from white schools in the district, which were usually better equipped. Moreover, students in segregated schools were often subjected to long commutes and lacked basic amenities such as safe playgrounds and adequate heating and cooling systems.
How It Changed the Way Students Enrolled
In the decades before Brown, many schools did not provide adequate resources for students of color. They often had less access to technology, fewer qualified teachers, and outdated textbooks passed down from white schools in the same district. Students also had to travel long distances to school without access to transportation. Some black schools had deteriorating infrastructure and unsafe facilities. The case brought to light the fact that segregated education was not just unfair but unconstitutional.
In 1951, the parents of a little girl in Topeka, Kansas, named Linda Brown, sued the local school board after she was denied entrance to the city’s all-white elementary school. The Supreme Court favored the Browns, arguing that school segregation violated the children’s constitutional rights. This landmark decision overruled the Plessy ruling and declared that segregation is inherently unjust.
However, school desegregation was not easy, and even today, it still needs to be completed. The Supreme Court’s decision set the stage for the civil rights movement, and it gave African Americans hope that segregation would end not just in schools but in housing, public accommodations, and institutions of higher learning. In addition, the case empowered educators of all backgrounds to fight for equal educational opportunities. However, it also had the unintended consequence of displacing experienced and highly credentialed black educators from schools they had staffed exclusively. Thousands of them were fired, demoted, or forced to resign.
How It Changed the Way Schools Functioned
In the years following Brown, tens of thousands of experienced, highly credentialed black teachers lost their jobs as school districts began integrating. For example, in North Georgia, a principal who worked at a predominantly black elementary school was transferred to the superintendent’s building and given a windowless room as his office. He was docked $3,000 from his salary and forced to resign. This is just one of many common stories after the Supreme Court decision.
While the Supreme Court ruling in Brown did not achieve school desegregation on its own, it gave rise to the civil rights movement and the Montgomery bus boycott led by Rosa Parks, among many other movements, which were all ultimately successful in ending racial discrimination. The civil rights movement was largely a result of the activism by ordinary people who were fed up with injustices like racial segregation.
It is important to note that Brown only made it legal for students of all races to be in the same classroom, and it did not guarantee they would learn together. Even today, racial disparities in education persist. The work to end segregation is ongoing and must be done with efforts to promote equity in other areas of society.
