DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE
The Brown Decisoon
fEI esponding to lawsuits argued by NAACP lawyers, Brown v. Board
lf'lof Education was the culmination of a series of Supreme Court
rulings that chipped away at an earlier Court's decision in Plessy v.
Ferguson (1896) permitting "separate but equal" public facilities.
DOCUMENT 1
Brown v. Board of Education, May 1954
In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the
unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court, declaring racial
segregation in public education unconstitutional and
explaining why.
It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected
to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, if the state has undertaken
to provide it, is a right that must be made available to all
on equal terms ....
We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of
race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities?
We believe that it does ... . In Mclaurin [a 1950 case],
the Court, in requiring that a Negro admitted to a white
graduate school be treated like all other students, again
resorted to intangible considerations: " . .. his ability to
study, to engage in discussions and exchange views w ith
other students, and, in general, to learn his profession."
Such considerations apply with added force to children in
grade and high schools. To separate them from others of
similar age and qualifications solely because of their race
generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the
community that may affect their hearts and minds in a
way unlikely ever to be undone.
We conclude that in the field of public education the
doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal
Source: Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
DOCUMENT 2
Southern Manifesto on Integration,
March 1956
The Brown decision outraged many southern whites. In
1956, more than one hundred members of Congress
signed a manifesto pledging resistance to the ruling.
We regard the decision of the Supreme Court in the school
cases as a clear abuse of judicial power. It climaxes a trend
in the Federal judiciary undertaking to legislate ... and to
encroach upon the reserved rights of the states and the
people.
The original Constitution does not mention education. Neither does the Fourteenth Amendment nor any
amendment . ... The Supreme Court of the United
States, w ith no legal basis for such action, undertook to
exercise their naked judicial power and substituted their
personal political and social ideas for the established law
of the land.
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 ninety years of patient effort
by the good people of both races . . ..
We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to bring
about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the
Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation.
Source: " Southern Manifesto on Integration, " Congressional
Record, 84th Congress, 2nd Session, vol. 102, pt. 4 (Washington,
DC: Governmental Printing Office, 1956), 4459- 60.
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DOCUMENT 3
A High School Boy in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee, 1957
In the face of white hostility, black children carried the burden
of implementing the Brown decision as these accounts testify.
I like it a whole lot better than the colored school. You have
a chance to learn more and you have more sports. I play forward or guard on the basketball team, only I don't get to
participate in all games. Some teams don't mind my playing.
Some teams object not because of the fellows on the team,
but because of the people in their community. Mostly it's
the fans or the board of education that decides against me.
... The same situation occurs in baseball. I'm catcher, but
the first game I didn't get to participate in. A farm club of
the major league wrote the coach that they were interested
in seeing me play so maybe I'll get to play the next time.
Source: Dorothy Sterling, Tender Warriors (New York: Hill and
Wang, 1958), 83. Copyright © 1958 by Hill and Wang. Reprinted
with permission.
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DOCUMENT4
A High School Girl in the Deep South,
May 1966
The first day a news reporter rode the bus with us. All
around us were state troopers. In front of them were federal
marshals. When we got to town there were lines of people
and cars all along the road. A man without a badge or anything got on the bus and started beating up the newspaper
reporter. . .. When we got to the school the students were
all around looking through the windows. The mayor said we
couldn't come there because the school was already filled to
capacity. We turned around and the students started yelling
and clapping. When we went back [after obtaining a court
order) there were no students there at all. [The white students did not return, so the six black students finished the
year by themselves.] The shocking thing was during the
graduation ceremonies. All six of the students got together
to make a speech. After we finished, I looked around and
saw three teachers crying. The principal had tears in his eyes
and he got up to make a little speech about us. He said at
first he didn't think he would enjoy being around us. You
could see in his face that he was really touched.
Source: In Their Own Words: A Student Appraisal of What Happened
after School Desegregation (Washington, DC: Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, 1966), 17- 18.
DOCUMENT 5
A High School Girl in the Deep South,
May 1966
I chose to go because I felt that I could get a better education here. I knew that the [black] school that I was
then attending wasn't giving me exactly what I should
have had. As far as the Science Department was concerned, it just didn't have the chemicals we needed and
I just decided to change. When I went over the students there weren't very friendly and when I graduated
they still weren't. They didn't want us there and they
made that plain, but we went there anyway and we
stuck it out.
Source: In Their Own Words: A Student Appraisal of What
Happened after School Desegregation (Washington, DC:
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of
Education, 1966), 44.
Quest ions for Analysis and Deb at e
1. What reasons did the Supreme Court give in favor of
desegregation? What reasons did black students give
for wanting to attend integrated schools? How do
these reasons differ?
2. What arguments did the southern legislators make
against the Supreme Court decision?
3. What obstacles remained for African American students
to confront once they had been admitted to integrated
schools?
4. What conditions do you feel would be worth enduring
t o obtain a better education?
Connect to t he Big Idea
(:) Why did President Eisenhower initially resist desegregation, and what steps did he eventually take in support
of integration?