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Thurgood Marshall & Colleagues:
On This Day In 1954, The U.S. Supreme Court Handed Down Its Decision In The Historical Case Of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Chief Justice Earl B. Warren Read The Court's Decision:
"Does segregation of children in public schools soley on the base of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal education opportunities? We believe that it does...."
The Case Began When Reverend Oliver Brown Of Topeka, Kansas Attempted To Enroll His Daughter, Linda, In Summer Elementary School, Which Was Closer To His Home Than The Black Schools. The Case Was Taken Up By The NAACP, With Thurgood Marshall Acting As The Group's Chief Counsel.
"We conclude (continued Justice Warren) that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought, are by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."
The Court's Ruling That "Separate But Equal" Was Not Possible In America's Public Schools, Overturned The Decision In The Previously Argued Case, Plessey v. Ferguson, And Putting A "Legal" End To Segregation In America.
However, In The Decades That Followed Brown, Southern States Resisted Intergration. They Created "Freedom Of Choice" Programs, Publically Funding Private, Segregated, Schools, And Even Closing Public Schools.
By 1964, Less Than 2 Percent Of Southern Blacks Were Enrolled In Desegregated Schools.
"In Order For Black History To Live, We Must Continue To Breathe Life Into It." -- Hubert Gaddy, Jr.
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