Brown VS The Board of Education, a Step For Equality, English homework help

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The thesis statement is the following:

Brown vs The Board of Education was a turning point for racial equality in American history. Even though racism

is still an issue today, this case opened many American citizens’ eyes to the fact that change was needed

regarding racial segregation.

It should also be written following my outline:

I. Introduction

a) African Americans were not allowed to attend school with White Americans, they had to go to

separate schools.

b) Brown vs The Board of Education was a turning point for racial equality in American history.

Even though racism is still an issue today, this case opened many American citizens’ eyes to the

fact that change was needed regarding racial segregation.

II. Paragraphs

A. Racial Discrimination

1. Place where the event occurred: Topeka, Kansas

a. A black third-ˇgrader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard

to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away.

b. Linda’s father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school seven blocks

from her house. The principal refused because she was black.

c. Brown contacted McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka’s branch of the National Association

for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to seek help

2. The case and its outcome

B. Reasons for the segregation of schools

1. Adulthood preparation

2. According to the schools, African Americans were slow learners

3. It was said that African Americans are troublemakers

C. Details of the case

1. The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas heard Brown’s case from June 25-ˇ26, 1951.

2. NAACP chief counsel Thurgood Marshall argued the case of Brown v. Board of Education before

the Supreme Court for the plaintiffs.

3. In the re-ˇargument the Court requested that both sides discuss the circumstances surrounding the

adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.

D. Final decision

1. The Court could not base its decision on the Fourteenth amendment as it was more a question of

whether having desegregated schools deprived black children of equal protection of the law.

2. On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the decision of the unanimous voting court: “We

come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the

basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal,

deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it

does…We conclude 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 the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the

Fourteenth Amendment”

III. Case conclusion

A. Supreme Court decision required the desegregation of schools across the United States.

B. This decision alone helped eliminate unneeded racism that would have undoubtedly been much

worse had separate but equal stood.