LAD #37

Summary of Brown v Board of Education

Linda Brown was an elementary school girl who was forced to walk a mile each day through a dangerous railroad area in order to get to her black school. There was a white school that was much closed, but due to segregation, the white school refused to accept her. Brown's family along with the NAACP took the case to court. Their case was joined with similar ones from many other states. They argued that separate schools for black children was detrimental to their education as it made it seem they were inferior to whites.  However, in Plessy v Ferguson, it was ruled that separate facilities were fine as long as they were equal. The Brown's argued that the schools were not as equal as they were intended to be. On the other side, the Board of Education claimed the segregation would prepare children for the segregation they would face in the real world as adults. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court where it was ruled that segregation of schools should not be allowed. This overturned the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson and was a big step toward gaining more equality. There was still a monumental amount of work to do to gain equality.