Question

Brown as the Beginning, Supreme Court Historical Society

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) is the case that outlawed school segregation and largely overturned Plessy v. Ferguson’s (1896) “separate but equal” precedent. In this case, the Court found that school segregation was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The decision was the turning point in the country’s struggle for equal protection under the law for all of its citizens with particular application to education. It also gave encouragement to the Civil Rights Movement. Brown’s impact on segregation, however, was neither immediate in 1954 nor has it ended segregation. In some ways, the struggle continues today.

From the very beginning, the country’s support of the case was complicated. Brown clearly stated that “in the field of public education, ‘separate but equal’ has no place,” but gave no details about how to implement it. Even school districts that implemented desegregation plans still had de facto segregation, including those in the North that legally desegregated schools long before Brown. The decade following the Court’s unanimous opinion in Brown was filled with resistance. States in the South avoided implementation, and varying degrees of presidential support weakened its impact. Thus, Brown v. Board of Education did not immediately mark the end of school desegregation, but rather marked the beginning of progress both at the state and national levels.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower began his first term in January 1953. In the realm of civil rights, President Eisenhower believed in leading by example, stating “I do not believe we can cure all the evils in men’s hearts by law.” He took action on the federal level, hoping the states would follow. For example, during his first eight months in office, he desegregated restaurants in Washington D.C., challenged segregation practices in schools on military bases, and created the Committee on Government Contracts to oversee fair hiring practices in the allocation of federal contracts. He was, however, conflicted about how swiftly Brown could be implemented.

Eisenhower and his attorney general researched the Fourteenth Amendment and agreed with the Supreme Court’s stance: segregated schools created inequality and were therefore unconstitutional. Still, President Eisenhower maintained that federal power should not be used to push segregated states towards dramatic social change. He stated, “these people in the South were not breaking the law for the past 60 years…Now we cannot erase the emotions of three generations just overnight.” With enough time to adjust, he believed, segregated states would comply with the Court’s ruling.

His hopes were unfulfilled. In February 1956, over a year and a half after Brown, the University of Alabama defied a court order to admit a Black student. President Eisenhower refrained from federal intervention. The school stayed segregated for seven more years (into President John F. Kennedy’s term). Then, in September 1957, the Little Rock Nine students endured a week of unsuccessful attempts to go to class at Central High School. First, the Arkansas Governor ordered the National Guard to block their entrance. Then, mobs made it unsafe to attend at all. Finally, the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) stated that the nine children would not return until they had the protection of the president. It was at this point that President Eisenhower recognized that some segregated schools and universities would turn to violence before integrating. Letting the states implement the decision at their own pace would not work. In an unprecedented move, Eisenhower authorized the deployment of federal troops to Little Rock on September 23, 1957. The National Guard accompanied the students into Central High on Wednesday, a week and a half after the first day of school, and more than three years after Brown.
1. What decision was made in Brown v. Board of Education?








2. What decision did Brown v. Board of Education overturn?









3. What type of resistance did the Brown v. Board of Education decision face?








4. What progress was seen?







5. President Eisenhower said “these people in the South were not breaking the law for the past 60 years…Now we cannot erase the emotions of three generations just overnight.” What impact do these words have?

Answer 1

1. The Court ruled that school segregation is unconstitutional — in public education “separate but equal” has no place — under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

2. It overturned the “separate but equal” precedent established by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

3. Strong resistance: many Southern states refused or delayed implementing desegregation, courts and schools were defiant (de jure and de facto segregation persisted), there were violent and mob reactions (e.g., Little Rock), and uneven federal enforcement slowed change.

4. Progress included the legal end of sanctioned school segregation, encouragement and momentum for the Civil Rights Movement, some federal desegregation measures (e.g., in Washington, D.C., and the military), and eventual federal enforcement (e.g., troops at Little Rock) that began the slow process of integration.

5. Eisenhower’s words show his belief that social attitudes built over generations could not be changed instantly by law; they explain his initial reluctance to use strong federal intervention. That cautious stance helped produce slower, uneven enforcement and allowed resistance to continue longer than civil-rights advocates wanted.