Brown v. Board Of Education And The End Of Segregation
By | November 29, 2016
Nettie Hunt and her daughter Nickie sit on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. Nettie explains to her daughter the meaning of the high court's ruling in the Brown Vs. Board of Education case that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Source:
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling officially put an end to the "separate but equal" policies in schools that had allowed for institutionalized segregation in line with the 1897 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling.
It’s been a long road since the days of inequality, since the days where the color of one’s skin being the key determining factor of one’s worth, since the days when the United States of America wasn’t only divided between the have and the have-nots but also the haves being primarily of one race whilst the have-nots being of African descent. African Americans have fought indefatigably to assume equal standing in every facet of human existence, but could this have been as a result of one man, Abraham Lincoln?
Dred Scott. Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1857 in a supreme court ruling Dred Scott v. Sandford, the supreme court ruled the Negros or blacks being the descendant of slaves, whether free or slaves were not Americans, denying an entire class of people the right and freedoms that were associated with being an American; could it be that Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Emancipation a mere seven years later, may have been the catapult that paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education which ruled in favor of ending segregation and discrimination in Education?
Another question is, did this win for African Americans in Brown v. Board of Education end all segregation or did it simply formally deinstitutionalized tolerance of racial segregation and discrimination? In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested after she refused to move to the back of the bus and in 1960 the United States of America witnessed the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-ins because local restaurants that refuse to serve African-American customers; was Brown v. Board of Education effective? Brown v. Board of Education may not have ended all segregation and discrimination but it was surely a start. A closer analysis of the Timeline of Events with regards to Civil Rights unfolds before our eyes a chain of events that are most definitely precursors to other events. The 1857 supreme court ruling Dred Scott v. Sanford gave rise to the Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Emancipation which saw many legal decrees and amendments to the United States Constitution. Brown v. Board of Education was indeed part of a ripple effect of the Proclamation of Emancipation, which continued to Bailey v. Patterson and the desegregation in transportation. Brown v. Board of education marked a pivotal point in history, where African Americans saw the state peeling back the layers and truly examining the unconscionable supreme court ruling Dred Scott v. Sanford. Brown v. Board of Education marked the beginning of true freedom, the freedom to receive an education, freedom to sit wherever on desires on public transport, the freedom to marry outside of one’s race and the freedom to vote.
So, Brown v. Board of Education didn’t end all segregation but it paved the way for us to have enlightened discussions in regards to racial equality; it brought us to a place where we can truly say all lives matter, whether black or white, we all bleed, hurt, cry and laugh the same. Brown v. Board of Education allowed America to truly be one of the greatest countries in the world because it allowed America to benefit from not only the genius or intelligence of its white civilians but also it allowed America to tap into its reservoir of brilliance, the minds of black men and women.
