Brown V. Board of Education Essay Example for Free

embrown V. Board of Education EssayBrown v Board of Education is a diachronic termination case that dis troopstled segregation laws and established a great milest iodine in the racement toward authorized twinity. The Supreme motor hotels unanimously decided on Brown v. Board of Education that carve up but tinge is inherently un represent. Ruling that no ground had the power to pass a law that deprived anyone from his or her 14th am culminationment properlys. For my historical analysis I go forth use Richard Klugers open Justice, in which he argues, that the Declaration of Independence was marred by hypocrisy every(prenominal) told men were not rival if foul. His book will assist me in learning the policies that lead to and surrounded this case.Using interviews I conducted, where I questioned inner city high school students of their schooling experience in comparison to my pal who attends a predominately white privileged private school, I will ultimately uncover the rough(prenominal) inequalities that chill out exist to twenty-four hours. While researching I interviewed my great-Aunt Bertha, who grew up in the state of manuscript, she had a first-hand experience of lifespan before Brown v Board of Education and life after the Supreme coquette control on the case, her life was changed forever. My research will focus on not only a historical analysis of what occurred, but how far America has leaseed to truly come in dealings with race relations, and the inequalities that gloss over exist today.The American civic War was fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States also known as the heart and soul and the a couple of(prenominal) southern states that announced their separation from the United States known as the helpers. The war was based in the main on differing opinions on the issue of slavery. The war lasted about four old age and the results yielded in the Confederacy beingness defeated by the Union. Upon defeating the Confederates, the Union abolished slavery. From that moment on the process of rebuilding the Union as a strong united nation began. This Union was to guarantee freedom to slaves and began the process of having causality slaves obtain rights entitle to all citizens. Once the Civil War had ended, so did the policy of legal slavery. However former Confederate leaders did not delineate on allowing the former slaves to view all the like rights as whites nor did they intend for former slaves to be counted equally as citizens.Just before the end of the war, congress had passed the Morrill Act of 1862. This second was to provide for federal patronage of higher education. Former slave-holding states decided to find loop holes in allowing former slaves to benefit from the new federal funding as they were not ready to asked them as citizens or even up human for that matter. Post-Civil War, the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution granted equal protection under the law to all citizens. Although the amendment was put into case Congress knew the transition from slave to citizen with a hand full of rights would be tough for former slaves so to help with the transition process Congress created the Freedmens Bureau. This program was created to assist in the integration of former slave into society as citizens. At the end of the reconstruction period in 1877 former Confederate states implemented random laws that would blatantly go against the federal law and the organic right granted by the 14th amendment to all including African Americans for equal directment under the law. Southern state guessd they could somehow obey federal orders by having e feeling yet keeping order by having races reside abstract. For many course of instructions the tap at both state and federal take aim claimed the 14th amendment employ only to federal, not state, citizenship, at that placefore they had no control over how a state thought to treat or label an African American on their land. This was proven true of the court in the 1863 Civil Rights Case heard before the Supreme salute.This case was made up of five lower level court cases and made into one because they all had the same claim. In this case The Court held that Congress lacked the constitutional authority under the enforcement provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals and organizations, earlier than state and local governments. After the end of Reconstruction, the federal government generally did not hear racial segregation cases instead advising the issue be left up to each individual state to handle. In understanding Brown v Board of Education one must first understand a little about Plessey v Ferguson. The issue in this case was can the states constitutionally consecrate jurisprudence requiring persons of different races to use separate but equal segregated facilities? And the Court ruled, yes. The states can constitutional ly enact legislation requiring persons of different races to use separate but equal segregated facilities, this coming from the highest Court of the land. The smother with this ideology was that it is contradictory even in its simplest form.Although the Constitution required equality, the facilities and social services offered to African-Americans were almost unendingly of lower quality than those offered to white Americans for example, many African American schools received less public funding per student than priceyby white schools. Public water fountains, which were label wileed, were al ways of lower quality than those labeled for whites. Life went on lived with this flawed idea of serrate equality for many years creating an middle-level class of citizens, black were at the bottom and therefore not equal. Many people shed tested to challenge the separate but equal rule but most went unheard and those that were heard failed have a change occur. Eventually in 1954 a case did make it on the Supreme Court docket, that case was Linda Brown v. Board of Education. Brown v Board of Education asked the Supreme Court to coiffe the question of does the segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprive the nonage children of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment? portentouss wanted unspoiledice and wanted this question to be answered and gauzy for all the nation that they too be people entitle to all the same rights as whites. Thurgood marshal was one of leading attorney, and civil rights activists, who fought against the segregation laws and policies that were violating the rights of African Americans, especially the children. Kulger the African Americans were going to ask equal treatment from top to bottom buses, buildings, teachers, teachers salaries, teaching materials. Everything the same. Anything less was patently in infringement of the Fourteenth amendement, Thurgood Marshall explained. (18) T hurgood Marshall was one of leading attorney, and civil rights activists, who fought against the segregation laws and policies that were violating the rights of African Americans, especially the children.KulgerBlack children were denied admission to public schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to the races. Linda Browns vex though it to be insane that righteous based solely on the color of his daughters skin she would have to travel really far across train tracks to go to the black only school when they lived near by a school that happened to be labeled whites only. The National Association of the Advancement of Colored mountain picked up his case, making Linda Brown the poster girl for the cause She was the embodiment of young black students that were not getting an adequate education that they ar entitled to. Brown embellished the ideal look of an average, young, innocent girl, just trying to go to school like any other Whi te child would.The NAACP hired a team of lawyers and civil rights activist to petition the court to hear out the constitutionality of this issue. The lawyers on the case complied many other cases into the same bulk because they all asked of the court the same question, which was the constitutionality of the separate but equal.The Supreme Court ultimately decided in favor of Brown and cited, despite the equalization of the schools by objective factors, intangible issues foster and maintain inequality. Racial segregation in public education has a detrimental effect on minority children because it is interpreted as a sign of inferiority. The long-held doctrine that separate facilities were permissible provided they were equal was rejected. Separate but equal is inherently unequal in the context of public education. This decision called for an end to all state maintained racial segregation. Although the legal end was called for the mentality of many remained the same some going so far a s to verbally and physically torture blacks that would d be utilize the same facilities as whites. Brown v Board of Education was decided in 1954 approximately 60 years ago but the strong effects of life before the decision still live on today even in the State of innovative York which is known to be progressive and liberal I find myself surround by many disparities. Within the New York Public school system for example.Although we are not literally labeled certain schools as a black school or a white schools the idea of zoning children into schools based on their address is just the new form of separate but equal in my eyes. I had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow political science study at The city College of New York. John Miller shared with me his experience within the New York City public school system, where he was educated until his graduation from high school or as he called it aging out of the system. John described in detail his experience of never having shared a cl assroom with a white person before enrolling at City College. John was born and raise in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. Bedford Stuyvesant is widely known as the black cultural mecca of Brooklyn, similar to what Harlem is to Manhattan. He explained to me the way New York City public school system works from kindergarten through 9th grade. Children are charge a school that is in close proximity to their neighborhood. If they dont like the school they are assigned to, which many do not, the answer from authority figures is tough luck or simply move.Unfortunately John was one of the students that had to stay in his underfunded school. He also told me about his best booster unit who was one of the favourable few that gained admission into a charter school (which seems to be the only way out of the failed Bedstuy public schools) in downtown Brooklyn. His friend was admitted into the school because his mothers employer noticed what she felt was great intelligen ce for someone whose mother was a simple housekeeper. While he spent the day watching his mother clean her house she simply made a phone call to one of her friends who happened to be a big donor to the charter school and in just a few weeks he was being bussed to a 21st century private charter school. He was one of the lucky few to made it out. Miller is now at the University of Chicago studying biology, I hope of turn a doctor.Most of their childhood friends from the neighborhood are each in prison most for crimes of demand given their unfortunate circumstances. He described how another friend would frequently steal from the local mart story to supply his family with food. Miller would like to point out that he is not trying to create excuses for the crimes committed, even so he is sympathetic to their reasoning. He is also not oblivious to the fact that not all the crimes his childhood friends are being incarcerated for are crime of necessity but rather some are crimes of pur e boredom. He is not sure where to place blame or on who in either circumstance. The past stories accounts for the majority of the men John knew but the women are not excluding from this group of underachievers.Most became enceinte at an extremely early age giving birth to children out of wedlock. They gave birth with the expectation that there is always food stamps/welfare I dont need a job plot of ground others are working dead end jobs making minimum wage. In his community education is all the way not something to value and I would make the claim that it is because from kindergarten the schools in this community are underfunded and have teacher who dont care working in the system.If the teachers dont care neither will the students and so the cycle continues. Was this system plan and created by our white socioeconomic counter part? We were taught to believe Brown v Board of Education would change our lives forever. Once the high Court made the claim that separate but equal actu ally was impossible to accomplish and an oxymoron within itself. Mississippi was so disobedient towards the Brown v. Board of Education case, schools in the state refused to integrate. Therefore the federal courts in 1969 had to modify the Mississippi desegregation order. People still had their racist ideologies and even today 4 of the schools are single-raced, although it is legitimately outlawed.My aunt Bertha was a student in the Mississippi public school system in the year prior to and post Brown v. Board of education. She vividly recalls sitting with her family around a radio and earreach the Chief Justice announce the courts decision to declare separate but equal unconstitutional. Making separate schools for whites and black she thought would immediately become a something of the past. She admits to being very nervous yet insane about the idea of going to schools that white people would also go to. She even recalls telling her tonic maybe we wont have to share books anymor e pointing to the fact that her school was so underfunded and there werent enough books to go around.Bertha says 2 years after the decision was handed down by the court she remained a student at a school on the east side of the track which were for black and the whites remained enrolled in the other school. She visits once a year now for her high school reunion and is just now starting to notice some integration almost 60 plus years subsequent the principle proudly announced we now have a white population of 2.3 percent although she was proudly to see Brown v. Education being implemented into her hometown she still is saddened by the fact that people of color on her side of the track could potentially go through life without ever having much interaction with the other race if they so chose.This saddens her because we are now living in 2012 and our President is black however whites and some blacks still seem very uncomfortable with they idea of being together, not just in the class room but also in all aspects of life. Segregation was an unmitigated evil, and no black man anywhere in America was free of its scar so long as the Supreme Court tolerated it (290) We are still living in a systematic world of segregation in the New York City School System in the public and private sector. Schools where most of the students are minorities get underfunded. Is this a problem of economics? Distribution? Or an ongoing internal racism that often gets ignored?BIBLIOGRAPHYKluger, Richard. Simple Justice The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black Americas Struggle for Equality. New York Vintage, 2004. Print.Mississippi Schools pacify Segregated Despite Court Order. Breaking News for Black America RSS. NewsOne Staff, 4 May 2011. Web. 18 Dec. 2012. Miller, J (2012, 5 October) Personal InterviewMoore, B (2012 15, October) Telephone Interview