BROWN VS. BOARD OF
EDUCATION
Contributions to the Civil Rights movement in
the United States
Goals/Objectives:
5th grade Social Studies
Era 9 – Postwar United States (1945-1970’s)
5.5.12d – Explain Brown vs. Board of Education
and its importance to the Civil Rights movement
5.5.spi8 Recognize examples of how the United
States confronted Civil Rights issues.
What do you know about Civil Rights?
1. What does the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the
United States say?
2. What year was the 13th amendment passed?
3. What does the 14th amendment to the Constitution of the
United States say?
4. What year was it passed?
5. What does Plessy vs. Ferguson have to do with schools?
The Civil Rights Movement prior to 1954
• 13th Amendment (1865) outlawed slavery
• 14th Amendment (1868) actually gave rights to “all persons born or
naturalized in the United States.”
• After the 14th Amendment –racism was legalized
• 1896 – Plessy vs. Ferguson: Separate but equal is okay
• Public buildings, restrooms, public transportation, schools, etc. were
segregated.
What does segregated mean anyway?
Segregation:
The separation or isolation from others or a
main body group.
Racial segregation:
The separation of humans in to racial groups
Seeking Change in the Courts
• 1909: NAACP is formed
• A young black lawyer named Thurgood Marshall is
General Counsel for the NAACP
• 1930’s: Marshall and the NAACP begin to challenge
the “separate but equal” doctrine
• First cases were colleges at the graduate level
• 1938 – Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, Registrar
of the University of Missouri
• 1950 – Sweatt v. Painter
• The goal was to integrate all of American society
What does integration mean?
Integration:
The process of “desegregation” or not excluding
some from the main group. Integration also
involves making equal opportunity for all,
regardless of race.
Desegregation is primarily a legal term, used in
courts and court cases.
Integration primarily refers to what happens in
society or communities.
Brown vs. Board of Education
• Black 3rd grader named Linda Brown of Topeka, KS
• Had to walk 1 mile and through a railroad switchyard to get to her
black elementary school
• White school was only 7 blocks from her house
• NAACP requested an injunction to forbid the segregation and allow
Linda to attend the white school
• Topeka court ruled that “segregation in schools prepared black
students for the segregation that exists in our society”
• Thurgood Marshall appealed to the Supreme Court
• After 2 days of legal arguments, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivers the
verdict
• Brown vs. Board of Education overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson
• Made segregation illegal
Famed author and poet Maya Angelou on
Brown vs. Board of Education
http://www.history.com/videos/mayaangelou-brown-vs-board-ofeducation#maya-angelou-brown-vs-boardof-education
So what?
• Brown vs. Board of Education was one catalyst of the Civil
Rights movement
• In the years following the 1954 case black people began to assert
their rights to live integrated into society:
• Woolworth’s lunch counter sit ins
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Dr. Martin
Luther King
• Rosa Parks and Montgomery Bus boycotts
• The Little Rock Nine
• Locally, The Clinton 12
• It was a scary time and many were arrested, hurt, and killed
• Black people stood up for the rights afforded them as citizens of
the United States
• “We hold these truths to be self evident, that ALL men are
created equal, endowed by their Creator certain inalienable
rights and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.” (Declaration of Independence)
Things to think about…
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What is segregation?
What is integration?
What did Plessy vs. Ferguson make legal?
What year did Brown vs. Board of Education happen?
What did Brown vs. Board of Education do to American schools?
What part did Brown vs. Board of Education play in the Civil
Rights Movement?
Goals/Objectives:
5th grade Social Studies
Era 9 – Postwar United States (1945-1970’s)
5.5.12d – Explain Brown vs. Board of Education
and its importance to the Civil Rights movement
5.5.spi8 Recognize examples of how the United
States confronted Civil Rights issues.