LAD #37: Brown vs. Board of Education

The Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court Case judged the constitutionality of the "separate but equal" clause (from Plessy vs. Furgeson) in education.  A black third grader by the name of Linda Brown was forced to endure a three mile hike through extremely rough terrain just to get to her designated school -- because she was not allowed to go to an "all whites" school.  Even though the white school was a mere seven blocks away, Brown was not allowed solely because of race.  When her family contacted the NAACP for help, her case gathered much support from people facing similar hardships, desiring to finally challenge the principle of segregated schools that created a black inferiority complex amongst students of the African American race.  However, the Topeka board responded that segregated schools were an adequate representation and preparation for each's individual future lives (and thus were justified).  When brought to the Supreme Court, the case was re-argued as the judges were forced to interpret educational segregation as coinciding or contradicting the "equality rights for rights" notion of the fourteenth amendment. Finally, after much deliberation, the court decided that segregation did in fact create an air of black inferiority in schools and was ruled unconstitutional. Though marking a significant step toward desegregation, the ruling was largely ignored as the intractable racist status quo of the south impeded the progress of equal civil rights.