Brown v. Board of Education

Decision

UNANIMOUS DECISION FOR BROWN Separate but equal educational facilities for racial minorities is inherently unequal violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

Extra

APPELLANT: Oliver Brown, Mrs. Richard Lawton, Mrs. Sadie Emmanuel, et al. APPELLEE: Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al. LOCATION: Monroe School DOCKET NO. 1 DECIDED BY Warren Court LOWER COURT: Federal district court CITATION: 347 US 483 (1954) ARGUED: Dec 9 - 11, 1952 REARGUED: Dec 7 - 9, 1953 DECIDED: May 17, 1954 ADVOCATES: - Robert L. Carter argued and reargued for the appellants in No. 8 and No. 1 - Paul E. Wilson argued and reargued for the appellees in No. 8 and No. 1 - Thurgood Marshall argued for the appellants in No. 101,reargued for the appellants in No. 2 and No. 4, and reargued for the respondents in No. 10 - John W. Davis argued and reargued for the appellees in No. 101, No. 2 and No. 4 - Spottswood Robinson III argued for the appellants in No.191 and reargued for the appellants in No. 2 and No. 4 - T. Justin Moore argued and reargued for the appellees in No. 101, No. 2 and No. 4 - J. Lindsay Almond, Jr. argued for the appellees in No.191 and reargued for the appellees in No. 2 and No. 4 - J. Lee Rankin Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, for the United States, as amicus curiae, by special leave of Court in No. 2 and No. 4 - H. Albert Young argued and reargued for the petitioners in No. 448 and No. 10 - Louis L. Redding argued for the respondents in No. 448 - Jack Greenberg argued and reargued for the respondents in No. 448 and No. 10

Conclusion

Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the opinion of the unanimous Court. The Supreme Court held that "separate but equal" facilities are inherently unequal and violate the protections of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court reasoned that the segregation of public education based on race instilled a sense of inferiority that had a hugely detrimental effect on the education and personal growth of African American children. Warren based much of his opinion on information from social science studies rather than court precedent. The decision also used language that was relatively accessible to non-lawyers because Warren felt it was necessary for all Americans to understand its logic.

Question

Does the segregation of public education based solely on race violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Facts of the Case

This case was the consolidation of cases arising in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington D.C. relating to the segregation of public schools on the basis of race. In each of the cases, African American students had been denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public education to be segregated by race. They argued that such segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs were denied relief in the lower courts based on Plessy v. Ferguson, which held that racially segregated public facilities were legal so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal. (This was known as the "separate but equal" doctrine.)