Connection of Brown V. Board of Education to Segregation

The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Case of 1954 was brought to attention by many people because of segregation. It all started because Oliver Brown, the appellant, brought up segregation to the Supreme Court. The Board of Education of Topeka in Kansas, the appellee,  wouldn’t allow one of Oliver Brown’s children into the Public White School in Topeka, Kansas.

On May 17, 1954, Federal District Court unanimously ruled segregation as unconstitutional. According to United States Courts, “ The Court said “separate is not equal,” and segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”(Brown v. Board of Education Podcast) Since the case was unanimously ruled unconstitutional, there weren’t very many opinions on the decision. However, Chief Justice Warren had a few opinions about the decision. “Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. . . . Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. . .

"To separate [children in grade and high schools] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. . . . "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate education facilities are inherently unequal."”(How a Dissent Can Presage a Ruling: The Case of Justice Harlan) There were no dissenting judges because the case was voted unanimously meaning that everyone agreed.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer who served as a Supreme Court Justice. He grew up in Baltimore and  experienced racial discrimination. Through all of high school and some of college, he was mischievous. It took a suspension for him to get in check and start focusing. He joined the debate club and it pushed him towards the decision that he wanted to become a lawyer. He wanted to go to University of Maryland Law School, but because of his color, they denied him. So instead, he decided to go to Howard University. This is where he was introduced to NAACP, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Marshall argued for the appellants in No. 1 and No. 8.

Robert L. Carter was a lawyer that was part of NAACP and researched information on racial segregation to use against the Board of Education in the case. Robert was the youngest child out of his 7 siblings. When he was very young, his Father died and his mother had to raise and work for 8 children.  At the age of 16, Carter enrolled at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and completed his degree in 4 years. After he completed his degree there, enrolled at Howard University Law School in Washington D.C and completed his law degree there. He later went to Columbia University where he received his LLM after writing a thesis on the right to freedom of association under the 1st amendment for NAACP. When Robert was drafted into the Army, he experienced racism for the first time. When he completed his time necessary for the Army, he was offered a job by NAACP. He accepted it and that’s when his career as a lawyer took off. Robert argued for the appellants in No. 1 and No. 8.

Paul E. Wilson was a lawyer that was defending the appellee, the Board of Education. He received his A.B. and A.M. at the University of Kansas. He later received his LLM from Washburn University. From 1942 to 1946, he served in the Army. After he had served his time, he was elected and re-elected County Attorney for Osage County. In 1951, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General and then 1st Assistant Attorney General. During this time, he was the representative for the Kansas Attorney General's office in the Supreme Court case Brown v. the Board of Education. Paul argued for the appellees in No. 8 and No. 1.

Chief Justice Warren was the fourteenth Chief Justice of the United States. Before he became the Chief Justice, he wanted to become a lawyer. He used to go to the Kern County courthouse and listen to criminal cases as a child. Warren attended the University of California, Berkeley and majored in political science for three years. After he completed his political science major, he entered the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his B.A. degree and his J.D. degree in just a few years and moved on to the California Bar. After he graduated, he worked in law offices in Oakland and  San Francisco and in 1925, he was chosen to be the Alameda County district attorney. During his fourteen years of being the district attorney, he gained the reputation that he was a crime fighter, he was a member of the Board of Regents of the University of California, and he was the only person to be elected three terms in a row to the governorship of California. In 1948, Warren was the Republican Party’s nominee for vice-president of the United States. He didn’t win, but it led him to an opportunity to become to fourteenth Chief Justice of the United States appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower. The most important decision Warren made during his career was making segregation unconstitutional during the Brown v. board of Education case.

Lindsay Almond, Jr. was an attorney general who was in favor of the appellee. He grew up on his family’s farm in Orange County. After graduating from school, he joined the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Virginia and then enrolled in law school. After graduating from the University of Virginia, he worked at a law firm.In 1925, he campaigned for Harry F. Byrd, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. This led him to his next opportunity to become assistant commonwealth's attorney and elected as a judge for Roanoke Hustings Court by the General Assembly, making him the youngest judge in Virginia. In 1946, Almond won a seat in the House of Representatives during a special election, but he gave up his seat in 1948 to finish the term of a deceased attorney general. He won the reelection as attorney general and defended segregation in the Brown v. Board of Education case, but at the end of the case, he changed his mind and the case was ruled unanimously. Almond argued for the appellees in No. 191, No. 2, and in No. 4.

James Lee Rankin was a solicitor general who proposed that segregation was unconstitutional. James was born and raised in Nebraska where he attended public schools. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Nebraska. After he had completed his law degrees, he was admitted to the Nebraska Bar Association and worked at a firm in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1952, Rankin organized the Eisenhower for President campaign and one year later, President Eisenhower appointed James to be assistant attorney general. While he was assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, he argued in favor for  the African-American plaintiffs in the Brown v. Board of Education case. He also advised that the doctrine “ separate-but-equal” facilities were unconstitutional. James presented to the court that desegregation should gradually take place to avoid any violence. Rankin argued in No. 2 and No. 4.

Louis L. Redding was the first black lawyer who was part of NAACP. He grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and went to Howard High School. He continued his education at Brown University and then at Harvard University. He later became the first black lawyer in Delaware and the first African-American to be admitted to the Delaware Bar. He assisted Thurgood Marshall in the Brown v. Board of Education which desegregated schools all across the nation. Redding argued for the respondents in No. 448.

Jack Greenberg was a lawyer that helped bring the Brown v. Board of Education to the Supreme Court. He graduated from Columbia Law School and Thurgood Marshall hired him as an assistant to help fight a case. A few years later, he was the youngest lawyer in the team that helped bring bring the Brown v. Board of Education case to the Supreme Court. He argued for the respondents in No. 448 and No. 1. 

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