BROWN V. BOARD OF
EDUCATION
Emily Cooksey
A Little History

1865



1866


Civil War ends
13th Amendment abolishes slavery
Founding of the Ku Klux Klan
1868

14th Amendment ratified


1870

15th Amendment ratified


Grants equal protection under the law and citizenship to ALL persons born in
the United States
African American men have the right to vote
1881

First "Jim Crow" laws
A Little More History

1896

Plessy v. Ferguson




1939


Clark Doll Tests
1949-1951


Separate Car Act
Segregated "separate but equal" intrastate public transportation was
constitutional.
Led to even further segregation, especially in the South
NAACP initiates 5 cases against school segregation in different
states
1954

Brown v. Board of Education
Life in the 1940’s
Life in the 1940’s

Economic
 Share
cropping
 If they could find a wage/salary job:
 Equal
pay for teachers?
Life in the 1940’s

Educational
 $179
per white vs. $43 per black
 61 black schools (6,531 pupils) total value $194,575
 12
 35%
white schools (2,375 pupils) total value $673,850
over age ten illiterate
Life in the 1940’s

Political

Voting
Literacy tests
 Poll Tax


Jim Crow Laws/ Etiquette

Examples




Illegal to have whites and blacks in the same room, unless they were
separated by a 7 foot or higher wall.
Under no circumstance was a Black male to offer to light the
cigarette of a white female
Blacks were not allowed to show public affection because it
offended whites
A dozen black men were lynched a month
Life in the 1940’s

Personal Accounts
 Muhammad
 Olympic
 Jackie
 First
Gold Medalist in Boxing
Robinson
Black man in Major League Baseball
 Tuskegee
 First
Ali
Airmen
black pilots
Clark Doll Test
Clark Doll Test



Dr. Kenneth Clark and Mamie Clark
Stereotypes and children's self-perception in relation to their
race.
Black children ages 6-9 were shown two dolls, one white
and the other black






Show me the doll that you like best or that you would like to play
with.
Show me the doll that is the 'nice' doll.
Show me the doll that looks 'bad.‘
Give me the doll that looks like a white child.
Give me the doll that looks like a colored child.
Give me the doll that looks like you.
Clark Doll Test (cont.)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZryE2bqwdk
Often chose to play with the white dolls more than
the black ones.
‘White' = good and pretty.
 ‘Black'

= bad and ugly.
The last question considered the worse
 Most
of the black children had already identified the
black doll as the bad one.
The Five Cases
Delaware

Belton v. Gebhart
 Run-down
segregated high school in a different city vs
a white school in the community

Bulah v. Gebhart
 Bus

transportation for black children
Results
 Chancellor
of the US District Court ruled that it was
discrimination
 11
black children should be admitted to white school
 Board
of education appealed the decision
Washington D.C.

Bolling v. Sharpe
 11
young Black students applied to be admitted to the
John Philip Sousa Junior High School.
 They were turned away
 Empty

classrooms.
Results
 Argued
the issue was segregation itself
 Dismissed
 Segregated
schools were legal in D.C.
South Carolina

Briggs v. Elliott
 Petition
for school busses
 Backed by Principle DeLaine
 Used the findings of Clarks’ test
 Segregation=psychological

damage to black children
Results
 2-1
loss
 “Equalization”
 DeLaine and Briggs lost their jobs
1
judge move to Florida
Virginia

Davis v. School County Board
 Students
went on 2 week strike
 No gymnasium, cafeteria, infirmary or teachers
restrooms

Results
 Overturned.
 “Equalization”
Arkansas

Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
 Parents
petitioned to enroll kids in white schools
 Oliver Brown was first parent listed

Results
 Ruled
against
 Accepted Clark’s evidence
Brown v. Board of Education

Taken to the US Supreme Court
 Used
Clarks’ findings
 14th Amendment violation
 Didn’t

require integration, but didn’t prohibit it.
Results
 Plessy
v. Ferguson overruled
 Integrate schools!
Today?

Average white student:



Average black student



42.7 % in 1968 to 51.4 % in 2011
Over ½ have poverty rates above 90%.


49 % black
28 % white.
Northeast: school segregation


73% white
8% black
1.9% of schools serving whites have similar poverty rates
Clark studies still reach same results today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSdKy2q6pEY
Questions


Even though there is legal integration now, how
successful do you believe Brown v. Board of
Education was in getting rid of segregation?
What are some ideas on how we could “change the
results” of the Clark Doll Study in the future?
References
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http://eh.net/encyclopedia/african-americans-in-the-twentiethcentury/
http://orig.jacksonsun.com/civilrights/sec1_crow.shtml
“Simple Justice” by Richard Kluger
http://www.nps.gov/brvb/learn/historyculture/people.htm
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/05
/brown_v_board_of_education_60th_anniversary_america_s_schoo
ls_are_segregating.html
http://www.usca.edu/aasc/briggsvelliott.htm
“Grappling with Diversity: Readings on Civil Rights Pedagogy and
Critical Multiculturalism” by Susan Schramm-Pate and Rhonda B.
Jeffries