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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 17, 2004 Brown v. Board of Ed, 50 years later By Chris Honore Today marks the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that struck down Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision that formed the basis for "separate but equal," a doctrine that would influence relationships between black and white Americans for some 58 years. And, it could be argued, framed racial relations even to this day. The "Plessy" decision was an attempt by Homer Plessy, an octoroon (someone then judged to be black though seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth African descent) to test the Louisiana law that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate cars. Plessy sat in a white only car and was arrested. His case went to the United States Supreme Court where the case was argued that requiring separate cars for blacks violated the 13th amendment (outlawing slavery) and the 14th amendment (insuring all citizens equal protection under the law). The court found against Plessy, arguing that distinguishing people by race "has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races � (and) in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based on color or to enforce � commingling of the two races upon unsatisfactory terms." This decision ratified what was a social trend of the time, and soon "separate" facilities for blacks and whites were deemed constitutional as long as they were "equal." Soon "separate but equal" was extended to many areas of public life from drinking fountains to restaurants to restrooms and, significantly, public schools As it turned out, the Plessy decision was a sham. Public facilities for both races were never equal, a fact made most evident in public schools, where resources such as books and classrooms were manifestly inferior, depriving young African-Americans of the right to a free and equal education. By the early 1950s, racial segregation in public schools was the norm across America. In Topeka, Kan., a black third-grader, Linda Brown was forced to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her all-black elementary school. A white elementary school was only seven blocks from her home. Her father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white school but was refused admittance. The Topeka chapter of the NAACP decided to challenge racial segregation in the public schools. The NAACP argued that segregated schools sent the message to black children that they were inferior to whites and therefore the schools were inherently inferior. Topeka's board of education responded that because segregation was pervasive in society, segregated schools merely prepared black children for the segregation they would face all of their lives. The local courts found in favor of the board, citing Plessy v. Ferguson as the precedent. Brown and the NAACP appealed to the United States Supreme Court, where the case was heard twice: in 1952 and then again in 1953. Essentially, the court had to decide whether or not segregated schools deprived black children of equal protection under the law. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine in public education and required schools across America be desegregated. Chief Justice Earl Warren read the decision to the unanimous court: "We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal opportunities? We believe that it does. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated or whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment." However, what proved to be crucial about the 1954 decision was what it did not do. Brown v. Board of Education did not abolish segregation in other public places, nor did it provide a time frame for the integration of the public schools. These two omissions, clearly, laid the foundation for what would soon become the Civil Rights Movement. As well, Brown is predicated on the belief that once formal segregation was ended, equal education (resources, buildings, opportunities) would follow. Fifty years later, this has not been the case. According to the Harvard University Graduate School of Education's Civil Rights project, "Resegregation in American Schools," public schools are highly segregated and becoming more so. The study points out that the average black student now attends a school that is just one-third white. In the 1990s, the proportion of blacks attending majority-white schools has declined by 13 percent, reaching the lowest level since 1968. Public schools, the Harvard report concludes, have been undergoing manifest resegregation, and once again minority students are condemned to an education which is separate and unequal. Hence, the confluence of poverty, wrong-headed school funding, and recent lack of will by administrations and the courts have led to the undermining of the promise of Brown v. Board of Education. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams