In 1951, the state of Kansas had a law that permitted public elementary schools to have segregrated schools for the black and the white children. However, this law did not require the schools to be segregrated.
The case was started by thirteen parents in Topeka, whose twenty children were effected by this law. The main supporter, was Oliver Brown. Oliver had a third grade daughter, Linda, who had to walk six blocks every morning to her bus stop to catch the bus which took her to Monroe Elementary, the segregrated school located one mile from her home. While this was happening, Sumner Elementary, the white school, was just seven blocks from her home.
The case was named "Oliver Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas," after Oliver Brown, who was at the head of the roster, because he was a man with a stable, intact family and steady income, as opposed to a single parent living in poverty as the head of household.
The thirteen plaintiffs in this case were; Oliver Brown, Darlene Brown, Lena Carper, Sadie Emmanuel, Marguerite Emerson, Shirley Fleming, Zelma Henderson, Shirley Hodison, Maude Lawton, Alma Lewis, Iona Richardson, and Lucinda Todd.
The Supreme Court combined five cases within the "Brown Vs. The Board Of Education Case". The other cases were Brown itself, Briggs vs. Elliott, filed in South Carolina, Davis vs. County School Board of Prince Edward County, filed in Virginia, Gebhart vs. Belton, filed in Delaware, and Bolling vs. Sharpe, filed in Washington D.C.
Overall, the case had to be passed because the fourteenth amendment required equal rights, and segregration was not equal. The case recieved a unanimous 9 to 0 vote to make the school's integrated.
Like all civil rights cases, the case's outcome did not happen without a fight. Te case recieved lots of racist slander. At the same time, though, the case was highly respected and thought of as a turning point for segregration and black citizens rights.
I believe that this case was one of the best things to ever happen in the civil rights world. Children schouldn't have to be segrerated from each other just because of the color of their skin. We all deserve the same education and environment to be taught in.
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