May
17, 2004 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1954
Supreme Court decision
to end segregation in public schools throughout
the United States. This presentation explores the question,
What historical events led to this decision? by
providing access to selected digitized historical information
that enhances an existing research tool.
The descriptive text and timeline was developed by
the National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Digital
Classroom presentation of documents relating to Brown
v. Board of Education: Timeline
of Events Leading to the Brown v. Board of Education
Decision, 1954 and Documents
Related to Brown v. Board of Education.
A Library of Congress
exhibit "With
an Even Hand" commemorating
the anniversary of this landmark
judicial case is on view at the Library through November
13, 2004, Monday - Saturday,
10:00am to 5:00pm. Users
of the National
Archives Web
site, the Library
of Congress Digital Collections and Online
Catalog will have the unique opportunity to
access resources from both federal repositories
to enhance
their knowledge of this historic event. |
| |
|
|
More... |
|
|
| The Supreme Court held that African Americans, enslaved
or free, could not be citizens of the United States.
Chief Justice Taney, arguing from the original intentions
of the framers of the 1787 Constitution, stated that
at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, African
American people were considered a subordinate and inferior
class of beings, "with no rights which the White
man was bound to respect." |
Significance: The Supreme Court
denied citizenship to African American people, setting
the stage for their treatment as second class citizens.
|
Slaves
and the Courts, 1740-1860
Prints
and Photographs Collection
|
 Top
of Page |
|
|
| The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,
also known as the Freedmen's Bureau,was
established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865. Its
main mission was to provide relief and help freedmen
become self-sufficient in all areas of life. |
Significance: The first African
American schools were set up under the direction
of the Freedmen’s Bureau. One of those schools – Howard
University – would eventually train and graduate
the majority of the legal team that overturned Plessy
v. Ferguson, including Charles Hamilton Houston and
Thurgood Marshall.
|
The
Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
From
Slavery to Freedom: the African American Pamphlet
Collection, 1822-1909
The
African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875
Today
in History
|
|
| Black Codes was a name given to laws
passed by southern governments established during the
presidency of Andrew Johnson. These laws imposed severe
restrictions on freedmen, such as prohibiting their right
to vote, forbidding them to sit on juries, and limiting
their right to testify against white men. They were also
forbidden from carrying weapons in public places and
working in certain occupations. |
Significance: Segregation
Begins - Public schools were segregated, and African
Americans were barred from serving on juries, and testifying
against Whites.
|
African
American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel
A.P.Murray Collection, 1818-1907
The
African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920
The
Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875
The
Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
The
Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
Prints
and Photographs Collection
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
| The Civil Rights Act of 1866 guaranteed
African Americans basic economic rights to contract,
sue, and own property. |
Significance: The intention of this
law was to protect all persons in the United States,
including African Americans, in their civil rights.
|
Abraham
Lincoln Papers
A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
Significance: The 14th
Amendment overruled Dred Scott v. Sanford.
It guaranteed that all persons born or naturalized in
the United States are citizens of the United States and
of the state in which they reside, and that no state
shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens,
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without
due process of law, nor deny to any person the equal
protection of the law.
|
African
American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel
A.P. Murray Collections, 1818-1907
A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875
Today
in History
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
| The Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of
1875, and declared that the Fourteenth Amendment does
not prohibit discrimination by private individuals or
businesses. |
Significance: The Court
declared that the Fourteenth Amendment does not prohibit
discrimination by private individuals or businesses,
paving the way for segregation in public education.
|
A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875
Southern
Voices: Texts from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
| Homer A. Plessy challenged an 1890 Louisiana law that
required separate train cars for African Americans and
White Americans. The Supreme Court held that separate
but equal facilities for White and African American
railroad passengers did not violate the Equal Protection
Clause of the 14th Amendment. |
Significance: Plessy v. Ferguson established
the “separate but equal” doctrine that
would become the constitutional basis for segregation.
Justice John Marshall Harlan, the lone dissenter in Plessy, argued that
forced segregation of the races stamped African Americans with a badge of inferiority.
That same line of argument would become a decisive factor in the Brown v. Board decision.
|
| Today
in History
African
American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel
A.P.Murray Collection, 1818-1907
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
| W.E.B. DuBois, Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington,
and others founded the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Their
mission was to eliminate lynching, and to fight racial
and social injustice, primarily through legal action. |
Significance: The NAACP became the
primary tool for the legal attack on segregation, eventually
trying the Brown v. Board of Education case.
|
African
American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel
A.P.Murray Collection, 1818-1907
Manuscript
Collection Reading Room
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
| Marshall succeeded his mentor,
Charles Hamilton Houston. |
Significance: Thurgood Marshall
would eventually lead counsel in the Brown v. Board of
Education case.
|
American
Treasures Exhibit
- A
Pillar of Justice
In 1954, Marshall achieved national recognition
for his work on Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark
Supreme Court decision that ruled public school segregation unconstitutional.
Today
in History
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
Significance:
By adopting Marshall's view, the NAACP decided to devote
its efforts solely to an all-out attack on segregation
in education, rather than pressing for the equalization
of segregated facilities.
|
The
Teachers Page: American Memory Timeline
|
|
|
| On February 28, Brown v. Board of Education was
filed in Federal district court, in Kansas. |
Significance: The NAACP defense
team attacked the "equal" standard so that
the "separate" standard would, in turn,
become vulnerable.
|
American
Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources
for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the
United States
- African
American Civil Rights
For fund-raising and tax purposes, the NAACP
established in 1939 the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund (1,057,500 items; 1915-87; bulk
1940-87), the records of which cover many
of the same topics found in the files of the
parent organization.
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
The Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson,
and declared that racial segregation in public schools
violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Bolling v. Sharpe
That same day, the Court held that racial segregation in the District of
Columbia public schools violated the Due Process clause of the 5th Amendment
in Bolling v. Sharpe.
The Court scheduled arguments on remedy in Brown for October but
eventually put them off until April of 1955. |
Significance: The Court ruled that
state-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a
violation of the 14th Amendment and was, therefore, unconstitutional.
In the wake of the decision, the District of Columbia
and some school districts in the border states began
to desegregate their schools voluntarily.
State legislatures in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi,
South Carolina, and Virginia adopted resolutions
of "interposition and nullification" that declared
the Court's decision to be "null, void, and no effect."
Various southern legislatures passed laws that imposed sanctions on anyone who
implemented desegregation, and enacted school closing plans that authorized the
suspension of public education, and the disbursement of public funds to parents
to send their children to private schools.
|
Teachers Page
In the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education
decision, segregated schools were declared
unconstitutional. This landmark decision sparked
the modern Civil Rights movement. Led by Martin
Luther King Jr., blacks engaged in a series of
nonviolent protests throughout the South to bring
about the end of segregation and racial domination.
Words
and Deeds in American History
|
| Top
of Page |
|
|
The Supreme Court heard its third round of arguments
in Brown, this time concerning remedies.
May 31: Brown II
On the last day of the term, the Supreme Court
handed down Brown II, ordering that desegregation
occur with "all deliberate speed." |
Significance: Brown
II was intended to work out the mechanics of
desegregation. Due to the vagueness of the term "all deliberate
speed," many states were able to stall the Court’s
order to desegregate their schools. The legal and
social obstacles that southern states put in place
and encouraged,
in their effort to thwart integration, served as
a catalyst for the student protests that launched
the
civil rights movement.
|
American
Treasures Exhibit
Words
and Deeds in American History
|
|
Although the following materials were created
with students and teachers in mind, this lesson
plan provides comprehensive search strategies for
researchers at all levels with interest on this
subject.
|
|
Other Library of Congress Digital
Collections 
A
Library of Congress exhibit commemorating the fiftieth
anniversary of this landmark
judicial case. The
physical exhibition will be on view at the Library
through November 13, 2004, Monday - Saturday,
10:00am to 5:00pm.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/ |
|
Related
Resources
|
From
the Catalog |
Selected
Photographs |
External
Web Sites |
|
The
Library of Congress >> Researchers >> Virtual
Programs & Services
