Mother and child

Brown v. Board of Education

By Brown Case

  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Plessy v. Ferguson
    "Homer A. Plessy challenged an 1890 Louisiana law that required separate train cars for Black Americans and White Americans. The Supreme Court held that separate but equal facilities for White and Black railroad passengers did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment."

  • Creation of the NAACP

    Creation of the NAACP
    "W.E.B. DuBois, Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington, and others founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Their mission was to eliminate lynching, and to fight racial and social injustice, primarily through legal action."

  • Fight for Desegregation

    Fight for Desegregation
    "Assisted by his protege Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston, of the NAACP, began his strategy of challenging segregation in graduate and professional schools."

  • Briggs v. Elliot

    Briggs v. Elliot
    "Thurgood Marshall and NAACP officials met with Black residents of Clarendon County, SC. They decided that the NAACP would launch a test case against segregation in public schools if at least 20 plaintiffs could be found. By November, Harry Briggs and 19 other plaintiffs were assembled, and the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Clarendon County School Board."

  • Bolling v. Sharpe

    Bolling v. Sharpe
    "Charles Houston provided legal representation for the Consolidated Parents Group, who, under the direction of Gardner Bishop, attempted to enroll a group of Black students in all White John Philip Sousa Junior High School, in Washington, D.C."

  • Davis v. County School Board

    Davis v. County School Board
    "NAACP lawyer Spottswood Robinson filed Davis v. Prince Edward County, a challenge to Virginia's segregated schools."

  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

    Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
    "In August, a three-judge panel at the U. S. District Court unanimously held in the Brown v. Board of Education case that "no willful, intentional or substantial discrimination" existed in Topeka’s schools. The U. S. District Court found that the physical facilities in White and Black schools were comparable and that the lower court’s decisions in Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin only applied to graduate education."

  • Belton v. Gebhart, Bulah v. Gebhart

    Belton v. Gebhart, Bulah v. Gebhart
    "In both of the Gebhart cases, the court ruled that the plaintiffs were being denied equal protection of the law and ordered that the 11 children involved be immediately admitted to Delaware’s White schools. The board of education appealed the decision."

  • Combined Cases

    Combined Cases
    "The Supreme Court agreed to hear all five of the school desegregation cases collectively. This grouping was significant because it showed school segregation as a national issue, not just a southern one."

  • Oral Arguments- Part 1

    Oral Arguments- Part 1
    "First round of arguments held in Brown and its companion cases."

  • A New Chief Justice

    A New Chief Justice
    "Chief Justice Fred Vinson Jr. died unexpectedly of a heart attack on the 8th. President Eisenhower nominated California Governor Earl Warren to replace Vinson as interim Chief on the 30th. The Court rescheduled arguments in Brown for December."

  • Oral Arguments- Part 2

    Oral Arguments- Part 2
    "Second round of arguments in Brown v. Board of Education."

  • The Decision

    The Decision
    "The Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, and declared that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment."