illustration of school buildingExactly 70 years ago today, on May 17th, 1954, the United States reached a long overdue milestone in the Civil Rights Movement. On this day, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separating children based on race in public schools was unconstitutional.  Although school segregation unfortunately continued in some parts of the country for several more years, it was deemed unconstitutional on this day.

The ruling was unanimous and said that segregation by race in public schools violated the 14th Amendment, which extended the liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people. It wasn't until over a year later, on May 31, 1955, that the Supreme Court issued another ruling instructing states to desegregate public schools "with all deliberate speed."

Although the case is known as Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court actually heard five similar cases collectively that all involved elementary school-age children attending Black schools that were inferior to white schools. The five separate cases were filed in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. The Brown v. Board of Education ruling applied to the cases in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. A separate ruling was issued for the case in Washington, D.C. that used the 5th Amendment rather than the 14th due to Washington, D.C. not being a state.

The library is a great place to learn more about this transformative moment in United States history. Check out these resources:

Books

Balkin, J. M. (Ed.). (2001). What Brown v. Board of Education should have said: The nation's top legal experts rewrite America's landmark civil rights decision. New York University Press.

Daugherity, B. J., & Bolton, C. C. (Eds.). (2008). With all deliberate speed: Implementing Brown v. Board of Education. University of Arkansas Press.

Hockett, J. D. (2013). A storm over this court: Law, politics, and Supreme Court decision making in Brown v. Board of Education. University of Virginia Press.

Klarman, M. J. (2007). Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement. Oxford University Press, Incorporated.

Sarat, A. (Ed.). (1997). Race, law, and culture: Reflections on Brown v. Board of Education. Oxford University Press, Incorporated.

Torres, J. A., & Fireside, H. (2016). Desegregating schools: Brown v. Board of Education. Enslow Publishing, LLC.

Articles

Hockett, J. (2021). Brown v. Board of Education and the politics that created a constitutional icon. Journal of Supreme Court History, 46(3), 292-330.

Peppers, T.C. (2022). The Chief Justice and the page: Earl Warren, Charles Bush, and the promise of Brown v. Board of Education. Journal of Supreme Court History, 47(1), 27-43.

Whitaker, R.A. (2021). Defending democracy: Speeches of the Warren court justices and Brown v. Board of Education. Journal of Supreme Court History, 46(2), 181-205.

Films

California Newsreel (Producer). (2012). The road to Brown [Full video]. (57:47)

KTWU (Producer). (2004). Black/white & brown: Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka [Full video]. (57:05)

 

Julia ReedJulia Reed is the systems librarian and focuses on technology development and maintenance. She's into graphic design, photography, and spending time outdoors in her free time.