Thesis: For millions of children educational opportunities were denied them because of the color of their skin. Segregated education would keep African-Americans as second class citizens so they were forced to fight to open new opportunities for their children by desegregating schools.

  1. The African American freedom struggle soon spread across the country. The original battle for school desegregation became part of broader campaigns for social justice. Fifty years after the Brown decision, the movement has come to include racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, and other groups, each demanding equal opportunity.

  2. Analysis of how well the Constitution promotes one specific ideal or principle logically connected to my position on the issue

    1. The declaration of independence in 1776 said “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” Yet at the time these words were written, more than 500,000 black Americans were slaves.

    2. Education was perhaps the most vital function of state and local governments, and racial segregation of any kind deprived African Americans of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and due process under the Fifth Amendment.

    3. The doctrine of separate but equal did not appear until 1896, and it pertained to transportation, not education.

  3. Provide an evaluation of how well the Constitution was upheld by a court case OR a government policy related to your position on the issue.

    1. Louisiana passes the first Jim Crow law in 1890 requiring separate accommodations for Whites and Blacks.

    2. In 1896 the Supreme Court authorizes segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, finding Louisiana’s “separate but equal” law constitutional. The ruling, built on notions of white supremacy and black inferiority, provides legal justification for Jim Crow laws in southern states.

    3. In 1899 the Supreme Court allows a state to levy taxes on black and white citizens alike while providing a public school for white children only in the case Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education.

    4. In 1952 the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Brown v. Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall, who will later become the first African American justice on the Supreme Court, is the lead counsel for the black school children.

    5. In a unanimous opinion in 1954, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education overturns Plessy and declares that separate schools are inherently unequal arguments.

    4.  

  4. A fair interpretation of a position on the issue that contrasts with your own. The case for the defenders of segregation rested on four arguments:

    1. The Constitution did not require white and African American’s to attend the same schools.

    2. Social separation of blacks and whites was a regional custom; the states should be left free to regulate their own social affairs.

    3. Segregation was not harmful to black people.

    4. Whites were making a good faith effort to equalize the two educational systems. But because black children were still living with the effects of slavery, it would take some time before they were able to compete with white children in the same classroom.

    5. Citing Plessy v. Ferguson, the defenders claimed that the equal protection clause of the Constitution did not require integration and that the states had already begun a good faith effort to make their facilities equal. Inequality between the races persisted, they explained, because African Americans still needed time to overcome the effects of slavery.

Works Cited

“Civil Rights: Brown v. Board of Education I (1954).” Civil Rights: Brown v. Board of Education I (1954). N.p., n.d. Web. 8 June 2015.

Head, Tom. “History of Desegregation in the United States — Desegregation History and Timeline.” N.p., n.d. Web. 8 June 2015.

Head, Tom. “Race and Equal Opportunity — Civil Rights, Affirmative Action, and Discrimination.” N.p., n.d. Web. 8 June 2015.

“Segregation Timeline Path to a Dream.” CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 8 June 2015.

“Timeline: From Brown v. Board to Segregation Now.” Top Stories RSS. N.p., 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 8 June 2015.