Brown Vs Board Of Education Essay

Segregation is the separation between people based on the color of their skin. Brown v. the Board of Education was a race-based case in Topeka, Kansas in 1952. There were five other cases regarding the segregation between students that led up to the most impactful case with plaintiff Oliver Brown. The case had an immense impact on segregation between schools in the 1950s and later generations. On May 17, 1954 society changed forever, by not allowing race to determine the way the school systems accepted students. Brown vs. the Board of Education resulted in decreased segregation in schools and other public settings, beginning with the harsh conditions the students endured while walking miles to get to school, to the fourteenth amendment in

“The Brown decision annihilated the ‘separate but equal’ rule previously sanctioned by the supreme court in 1896 that permitted school districts to have ‘white schools’ and ‘colored only’ schools” (Rothstein). The amount of schools that were segregated did not have to equal the amount that were not segregated. In Topeka there was a total of four schools that were “colored” schools. The case concluded on May 17, 1954 making it unconstitutional to have segregation between schools. Brown v. the Board was leverage for the civil rights movement which began in the 50s. Shortly after the case citizens of Topeka began to see social change within the community, “it opened an era of civil rights, protests and legislation of accomplishment” (Goodman). Not every citizen believed that schools should not be separate, and those who did believe that the schools should be separate originate in the South. Results from the case did not happen immediately, the ruling began having an effect a few years after the case. A decade after the case it was seen that the number of colored students in white schools increased, “two-thirds of black students were in virtually all-black schools, after the case ended that number went down to one-third” (Goodman). School districts were open and allowing colored students to enroll in their school. The case created a legacy, leaving a profound impact on future generations “it must be understood it is cultural as well as legal, it has expanded enriched not just our civic culture but our national culture as well” (Martin 235). The case left a foot print for the later centuries, by changing the way the school districts would run