Brown v. Board of Education

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Brown versus Board of Education (full name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas) was an important law case in the United States. This was a case that was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States which is the highest court in the US.

In Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader girl, named Linda Brown had to walk more than a mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black school, even though there was a white elementary school less than seven blocks away. Her father tried to get her into the white school, but the principal of the school refused. Twelve more black parents joined Oliver Brown, Linda’s father, in trying to get their children into the white elementary school. Even though it was said that the two schools were both equal, this was not true. As the principal refused to allow their children into his school, a legal case was made. The case won and it was made illegal for there to be separate schools for blacks and white, even though some states, at first, refused.

In May 2007, the country will mark the 53rd (fifty-third) anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education case, perhaps the most significant decision in American constitutional law and one that speaks eloquently to our vision of equality and justice for all. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign planed to devote the academic year 2003-04 to a commemoration of the Brown anniversary and to an engagement with the themes of simple social justice that animate the decision. As a featured event of this year-long commemoration, the Colleges of Education and Law will jointly sponsor a major academic conference, exploring the impact of Brown on our conception of educational opportunity and assessing the nation's progress in achieving the promise of Brown.

[change] The Ruling

The Supreme Court has nine justices. The vote on Brown v. Board of Education was unanimous, meaning that all nine justices voted the same way. They said “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This decision made racial segregation of schools against the law in every US state. Some states resisted (did not obey) this court decision at first. It was not until the early 1970s that all US public schools were integrated (the opposite of segregated).