Brown Vs Board Of Education
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The civil rights movement in itself has been a struggle for the African-American race. This fight to obtain natural human rights has begun much longer than there have been court cases to fight them. It began when this group of people were treated as if they were objects and not the humans they truly were. They went through 400 years of oppression not receiving the basic rights any citizen in America should be entitled to. They were beaten, traded, used, and utterly disrespected in many fields. The main focus to keep them in this state of oppression though was the use of education. Ignorance is bliss, some would say, and this is how America oppressed its new visitors. They oppressed African-Americans first by trying to keep them from any knowledge that was out there in the world. After the African-Americans were freed they were then held down by another form of disrespect. They were not allowed to get the same form of education as those who were Caucasian. This is why the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education was so instrumental in Americas progress toward truly freeing the minds and bodies of African Americans. All court cases leading up to and after the court case Brown vs. The Board of Education have been instrumental in the education of African-Americans and ensuring that they can enjoy this freedom without repercussion.
There have been set backs in African-Americans attempts to gain the rights that they deserve. One such set back is when the Civil Rights Bill of 1875 was declared unconstitutional in 1883. This set the promising future for African-Americans down a notch because they were not granted some constitutional rights that they were entitled to. Though this happened, African-Americans still progressed and tried to make progress in other issues in the judicial system. In 1896 there was another setback, which put African-Americans in the position that they would not receive the same treatment as Caucasians. This case was Plessy vs. Ferguson. It stated that it is ok for America to be run on the separate but equal standard. This meant that as long as African-Americans had a place of equal standards as Caucasians then it was acceptable to keep them out of the Caucasians version of the place. This is what led to separate water fountains, bathrooms, and even schools (Moss, 62).
Brown vs. Board of Education was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court made a unanimous decision that a young child named Linda Brown was able to attend an integrated school in Topeka, Kansas. This decision was made on May 17th of 1954.
Brown vs. The Board of Education helped strengthen other movements which were soon to follow. It can be seen as the case that brought a sense of challenge and boldness out in African-Americans. It brought them to the belief that they were worth something and were not just another useless part of this country. An example of the boldness that it brought out was that of the events that followed the next year. A year after this case the Montgomery bus boycott started. Three years after this case they began the integration of Little Rocks schools in Arkansas. Ten years later in 1964 the civil rights act was passed. This act was an instrumental act to many things in which African-Americans and other races of color value today. It provided the country with a set standard of rules and regulations that they were required to follow in order to run the country in a fair and effective manner. This act made discrimination in public places such as stores, restaurants, hotels, and movie theatres illegal. It also made it possible for people to get jobs fairly based on skill and not about the color of their skin. It made sure that employer practiced equal employment opportunities. It did not allow them to discriminate based on race, color, religion, or creed. If they were to do such things they could be prosecuted by the law and lose any funding that they were receiving from the government. Though Brown vs. Board of Education did all of this in response it really did little to change the way schools were segregated. It was more of a paper issue than it was reality (The Nation, 687).
Though Brown vs. Board of Education decision may have been more of a paper issue the other issues that it affected were not taken as lightly. One new issue that came in 1965 was the Voting Rights Act. This was brought by Congress addressing the issue that there had been many incidents of discrimination by race over who could vote. This protected the rights of those who were trying to vote. Along with that was the decision from the year earlier, which was the Civil Rights Act. These issues, which had been going on for several years, needed some sort of support or a backbone. The person to do this was President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the first to call