Brown+vs+Board+of+Education

__**Events leading up to Brown vs. The Board of Education**__
(+ equals a positive event in the path of desegregation, -- equals a set back)

--1789- Union created- Slavery was protected in the U.S. Constitution by counting a slave as 3/5’s of a person. -- 1793- Fugitive Slave Act + 1808- Constitutional bar on importing slaves. + 1820- Missouri Compromise- Banned slavery in the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boarder of Missouri. (Permitted south of line). -/+ 1849- Boston, Massachusetts. “separate but equal” schools based on race approved by Mass. Supreme Court. Overturned in 1855. +1850’s Underground Railroad --> 1854 – Fugitive Slave Act strengthened. -/+1854- Repeal of Fugitive Slave Act. New territories should decide the issue themselves. --1857- //Dred Scott vs. Sanford.// Slaves and descendants of slaves were not and could not be citizens of the U.S, instead they were property. +1865- Amendment 13- Banning Slavery +1870- Amendment 15- Guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race**
 * +1776 Declaration of Independence- “All men are created equal.”**
 * //Civil War Amendments://**
 * +1868- Amendment 14- Guaranteeing equality under the law

--> 1869- Howard University School of Law** --1872- //Slaughte-House Cases//- Supreme Court held that the federal government could not protect citizens of states from discriminatory actions by the state.
 * +1867- Howard University was created to educate former slaves and their descendents.

--1883 //Civil Rights Cases//- Declared Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional and that the 14th Amendment did not reach private discriminatory conduct.

+/--1896 //Plessy vs. Ferguson//- Supreme Court approved “Separate but Equal” as a principle that could be applied constitutionally in education, restaurants, hotels and more.
 * +1909- NAACP- Creation of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People**

--1936- Supreme Court Cases before 1936, -­Excluded blacks from voting. -Applied mandatory segregation laws in private schools. -Upheld private discrimination in housing.

+ 1880-1917 Two positive Supreme Court case rulings- · States could not discriminate on the basis of race in jury selection. · State-mandated residential segregation violated the 14th Amendment.


 * +1930’s, 40’s and 50’s – Howard University along with NAACP- began and followed through with a line of attack that led to the end of government-sanctioned, legal segregation.**

--> **Charles Hamilton Houston**- Took on the separate but equal principle, saying separate could not be equal. Through many battles in the south in the 30’s and 40’s, equalizations such as equal transportation, facilities and teacher salaries come forth from the vigorous word Houston did.

+1945- End of WWII. United Nations created.


 * +1948- United Nations adopted Universal Declaration of Human Rights prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin.**


 * +1950’s- During Cold War, U.S. was shown to be hypocritical in promoting non- discrimination and equality around the world when it was present in its own country.**

- Genocide Convention- led by African Americans made claims against the U.S. Claims dismissed because only states had standing to assert such claims, not individuals or groups.

 = =
 * - Separate but Equal doctrine, due to international affairs dealing with the Cold War effort, allowed the reality of inequality in the U.S. to be documented without dispute.**

= = = = =__Brown v. The Board of Education__ =  Brown was not the first case against racial segregation in schools. And it was in fact five separate cases combined under one challenge because they were all seeking the absolution of segregation. They came from many states including Kansas, Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington DC. George Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James Nabrit  The case that the Supreme Court combined these under and is the namesake, Brown v. Board of Education, was first filed in 1950. The NAACP enlisted a group of parents who agreed to file on behalf of their children, this was the twelfth case filed in Kansas to date. They were advised to try and enroll their children in one of the white schools, and every single one was denied access. It was then that they filed the class suit. Brown’s name was added because they thought it better to have a male’s name at the head of the suit.

 The five cases came together at the Supreme Court in December of 1952 with the lead attorney being Thurgood Marshall. The decision was read on May 17th 1954 and agreed with everything the defense had stated. Separate was not equal and racial segregation in schools was declared unconstitutional and illegal. (see link for full text of the declaration) http://www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html



Oliver Brown

http://www.brownvboard.org/summary/

= = = = = = = = =__**After Brown v. Board of Education**__ =



Massive Resistance
After Brown v. Board of Education, several resistance movements came about at state levels. One of these movements was called Massive Resistance, which was started by Senator Harry Byrd from Virginia. Massive Resistance was an opposition to racial integration to avoid compliance with the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. This included a series of laws introduced by Senator Byrd, including a law that forbade integrated schools from receiving state funds, as well as the ability of the governor to order integrated schools to be shut down. However, in 1959, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ordered the Massive Resistance laws unconstitutional, ending the movement at the state level.

Southern Manifesto
The Southern Manifesto was another response to Brown v. Board of Education. Written in 1956, the Southern Manifesto was written by a group of United States legislators who opposed racial integration in any public place. It was signed by 101 politicians, mainly Democrats, and mostly who were from the southern regions of the United States. They wrote, "This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding."

Despite Resistance
Despite resistance, schools were forced to become racially integrated, usually forced to do so through federal funding threats, and the product is visible today. For example, the Swann v.Charlotte-Mechlenburg Board of Education ruling in 1971 ruled that the busing of students could be allowed to be forced to promote racial desegregation. The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University reports that in 1988 the desegregation of schools came to a high in 1988. However, since then, racial integrated schools have declined to to the movement of African Americans and other minorities to the inner cities. In fact, in 2005 statistics show that the ratios of black students in schools that were mainly white were at "a level lower than in any year since 1968." ( [|Jonathan Kozol, "Overcoming Apartheid",][|The Nation], December 19, 2005. p. 26).

__New York Times Article, Brown vs Board of Education still an issue:__

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/weekinreview/10liptak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin