School Desegregation
In the late 1940s, lawyers from the NAACP and other civil rights groups went to court. Their targets were the dual school systems set up in many states. They argued that although black people paid taxes just like white people, they did not receive the same services from the government. With black and white schools so clearly unequal, the legal basis for separate but equal began to crumble. Courts began ruling that educational opportunities for blacks be improved.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a historic decision. The case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, wiped out the legal basis for racial segregation in public education. According to the Court, segregation laws were unconstitutional; they violated section one of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees all citizens equal protection (or treatment) under the law.
Section 1. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
A woman sitting on the steps of the Supreme Court, explaining to her daughter the meaning of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
