Brown vs. Board of Education
The case Brown vs. Board of Education which ended on May 17th 1954, was a case that changed a major part of U.S. society. The supreme courts decision in this case resulted in the abolishment of educational segregation of African Americans. During the case the Supreme Court used the process Judicial Review to reconsider the law that banned White and Black students from going to school together. The law that this case was challenging was set by the Plessy vs. Fergusson case in 1896. All nine justices agreed that the law was unconstitutional so the law was overturned.
The first case that was seen by the Supreme Court about black rights was the Dred Scott vs. Sanford case; Dred Scott sued the wife of his owner after the owner suddenly died. This caused uproar between the Slave and Free states. The free states believed that he should be allowed freedom while the slave states believe otherwise. The outcome of this case was the Supreme Court throwing it out on the grounds that black people didn’t have the same rights that white people had and one of those rights was the ability to sue another person.
In modern times segregation is not as big of an issue as it was during the Civil War but it is still palpable in certain regions of the United States. Surveys show there are more black people who live in the south than the north and there are less black people who enroll in top notch high schools and colleges. One article showing statistics on the amount of black people going to school in the south stated; “In 1991, 39% of black students in Southern states attended schools that were majority white; in 2003, only 29% did.” This shows that things have changed and are starting to revert to the old ways of legal segregation and social racism. It shows us that the problem with educational racism is still apparent in our time and segregation is not gone, and though it may not be as bad as it was after the Civil War things need to change. One of my partners for this project: Will Schrenkeisen, believes that with slavery abolished people looked for a new source of cheap labor, and came up with sweatshops. In America there are many laws about appropriate pay and worker rights that are not present in every country. He believes without slave labor we have shifted from slavery to the exploitation of citizens in other countries like China and Vietnam.
Brown vs. Board of Education. United States. Judicial. Kansas: Http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=347&invol=483, 1954.
Fuentes, Annette. "Http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-03-13-segregation_N.htm?csp=34." USA Today. 13 Mar. 2007. Segregation is back in class. 2 Oct. 2008
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