Brown v. Board of Education, Case Study Example

Abstract

The paper investigates one of the most important events in American legal history – the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The effects of the Supreme Court’s decision on the American legal system are discussed. The paper asserts that the decision in Brown v. Board of Education re-asserted the faith in legal desegregation remedies, paved the way for the subsequent legal developments like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and caused a serious shift in the Supreme Court’s position on racial issues.

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The history of the American legal system is rich in events and outstanding personalities. Throughout the development of the American state, its legal history reflected the major social, economic and cultural achievements and, simultaneously, served an effective driver of the dramatic historical shifts. The case of Brown v. Board of Education produced astonishing effects on the state of the civil rights movement. The case re-asserted the legal faith in legal desegregation remedies, paved the way for the subsequent legal developments including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and caused a serious shift in the Supreme Court’s position on racial issues.

In 1954, the case of Brown v. Board of Education made the headlines. That year, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that “segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment” (The National Center, 2010). The effects of the case on American legal history are difficult to underestimate. First, Brown v. Board of Education re-asserted the public faith in legal desegregation remedies. Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, the civil rights advances in America had had little to do with court decrees and had largely occurred outside of the boundaries of judicial action (Mack, 2005). Brown v. Board of Education made the right of the African-Americans to be free from segregation juridically cognizable (Mack, 2005). Second, the case paved the way for the subsequent legal developments, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the U.S. Attorney General the authority and power necessary to bring suits on behalf of Black plaintiffs (Brown, 2004). The decision in Brown v. Board of Education and the subsequent developments in law increased the number of desegregation cases and caused a serious shift in the American legal consciousness. Third, Brown v. Board of Education caused a serious shift in the traditional Supreme Court’s position on racial matters. Prior to the case, “whiteness” had been a legal category used by courts at all levels of the justice system (Walker, 2004). Brown actually nullified the “white” tradition in jurisprudence and marked the beginning of the new stage in history of racial relations in America (Walker, 2004).

Certainly, the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision were not totally positive. Brown v. Board of Education came at a difficult time for the U.S. image abroad: the Cold War turned American racism into the issue of the major international concern, and Brown v. Board of Education was just another proof to the difficulties the United States experienced in the context of racial relations and racism. Those effects, however, were minor compared with the profound legal changes that took place during the decade following the Brown decision. Brown v. Board of Education can be fairly regarded as the case that forever changed the direction of American legal history.

References

Brown, F. (2004). The first serious implementation of Brown: The 1964 Civil Rights Act and beyond. The Journal of Negro Education, 73, 3, 182-190.

Mack, K.W. (2005). Rethinking Civil Rights lawyering and politics in the era before Brown. The Yale Law Journal, 115, 2, 256-354.

The National Center. (2010). Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Retrieved August 7, 2010 from http://www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html

Walker, C. (2004). The effects of Brown: Personal and historical reflections on American racial atavism. The Journal of Southern History, 70, 2, 295-302.