Issues of Segregation and Case of Linda Brown

 Is separate but equal fair? Is it constitutional? The following is a narrative about how a little girl reversed a wrongful court decision and over half a century of history as the world knew it. In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court voted in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson that 'separate but equal' was constitutional. Following that decision, schools remained segregated and the disparity between white and black public schools grew.

In the late 1940's, Linda Brown was one of the many black children who was forced to walk to a further school than her white neighbors and receive a lesser education with worse resources. This situation was simply based on something she couldn't help-the color of her skin. In 1951, the NAACP reached out to multiple families, one being the Brown family, to attempt to have their children enrolled in a white public school. Upon denial of their request, the NAACP took the Browns along with five other families to court as a class action suit to protest public school segregation, where the fight to gain what was right began.

The District Court heard the case first on June 25th 1951, the NAACP and families arguing that separation was detrimental to the children because the children did not have the same resources and education and most importantly had a sense of inferiority towards the white students. The latter was focused on throughout the trial and in defense, the Board of Education stated that by learning 'separate but equal' at a young age would prepare them for the discrimination they would face later in life.

As that may seem shocking to the public and the families of these children, the Board held their ground that it was in the best interest of the children to be exposed to this scrutiny and racism in order to prepare for their future. The Board used famously successful black leaders as an example of people who experienced school segregation and went on to be remarkable successful. Ironically enough,  the leaders they mentioned often went on to fight the very situation in question, equating the rights of people of every color. The District Court came to a conclusion in favor of the Board of Education based on the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which defended that separation of children in school was completely constitutional.  

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