The landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education was a pivotal moment in history, where a Supreme Court decision made school segregation unconstitutional. Not only did it change learning forever, but it was a massive leap forward for equality and rights.
On May 17th, 1954, the Supreme Court decided that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Now, in 2024–we’re celebrating the 70th anniversary of the historic event.
If you’re a teacher or studying to become one through a course like EdD programs online, understanding and celebrating the history of U.S. classrooms are important. The Brown v. Board of Education case signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in schools, paving the way for equality.
Even beyond education, the case is considered a milestone in American civil rights history. The efforts to undermine the Court’s decision after the ruling also brought greater awareness to the racial inequality problems that African Americans were facing in the country.
The case also played a critical part in igniting civil rights activists, and increased efforts to end institutionalized racism in American society. We’ll be looking back at Brown v. Board of Education and how American education has changed since then.
The History of Brown v. Board of Education
The events leading up to the specific Brown V. Board of Education case first occurred in 1951. A public school district in Topeka, Kansas, refused to let Oliver Brown enroll his daughter at the nearest school to their home.
Instead, the district required Brown to enroll her in a school further away. The reasoning for this was that Oliver Brown and his daughter were black. This led to Brown, along with twelve other local black families, filing a class action lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education in a federal court.
Brown and the other families argued that the segregation policy—forcing black students to attend separate schools, was unconstitutional. The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled against the Browns, which probably doesn’t sound like history as you know it—and you’d be right.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas justified its ruling based on the judicial precedent of the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, where they ruled racial segregation didn’t violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, as long as the facilities and situations were equal—which is where the doctrine ‘separate but equal’ came to be.
After the District Court of Kansas’s decision, the Browns appealed to the Supreme Court, resulting in an outcome that’d shake history and be a major victory for civil rights. The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, ruling that the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine was unconstitutional for American educational facilities and public schools.
When looking back at Brown v. Board of Education, it’s important to consider the social climate at the time. Racism and discrimination against African Americans were at an all-time high, and segregation wasn’t only found in schools—it impacted public transport, housing, and more.
While Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation in schools, it would still take over a decade to end institutionalized racism in other sectors of society. With that being said, the case gave hope to millions of Americans by discrediting the ‘legal’ rationale backing the racial discrimination at the time.
The Aftermath of the Ruling
The Brown v. Board of Education case was a massive win for the Civil Rights Movement, but it wasn’t met with immediate removal of segregation everywhere. In particular, many Americans in the Deep South were uncomfortable and unhappy with the ruling.
For example, despite desegregation happening in the 1950s, many parents across the South started to hold events, like prom, off-site to keep it exclusively white. A great example of this is Wilcox County High School, where this practice continued until 2013.
It took almost 60 years after segregation was deemed unconstitutional for Wilcox County High School to host a prom for both black and white students. High schools like this existed across the Deep South, especially in rural or remote areas.
Brown v. Board of Education was also a major catalyst for the civil rights movement. The success led to Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, Ruby Bridges and the New Orleans School Integration in 1960, and the Freedom Rides in 1961—just to name a few.
It’d only be a decade after Brown v. Board of Education that Martin Luther King. Jr and the SCLC would launch a campaign in Birmingham. This campaign started in 1963, with sit-ins, economic boycotts, mass protests, and marches on City Hall.
Brown v. Board of Education was the symbolic fire that led to the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act being signed in 1964. The historic moment in 1954 changed more than just American education—it led to the change of the entire country.
How American Education Has Changed
Over the past 70 years, American education has changed drastically because of the Brown v. Board of Education case. Some of these changes are positive, however, some of them are negative—The following is a list of major changes in the past few decades.
The Brown v. Board of Education ruling had a massive impact on black teachers. One legacy the case has that goes overlooked is how more than 38,000 Black educators lost their jobs after the decision.
This is because the white administrators for integrating schools were refusing to hire Black professionals for teaching roles, or pushed them out where they could. Even now, the number of Black educators in American public schools is at an all-time low, sitting at 6%.
Statistics have found while resources have been increasing for Black students, more money is still being spent on white students. This information comes from a 2022 analysis of data released in 2017-2018 by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The amount of money being spent per pupil was $7,329 for white students, while it was lower at $7,129 for Black students. The analysis also showed that the sources of funding for students slightly differed, too. Black students received more federal funding, while white students received more local funding.
More than 600 schools are now offering the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course this year, too. This is more than 10 times as many schools offering the class compared to 2023, the year it debuted.
The College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies class was created in response to concerns of African American history being downplayed or left out of the K-12 school curriculum. While it has been banned or restricted in some states due to politics, it’s important to recognize the history of African Americans in the country.
While American education has evolved drastically over the past 70 years, more still needs to be done to improve equality in the classroom, especially for African Americans. Resources have been improving, but Black students still have the lowest completion rates out of any ethnicity, at 45.9%, for students enrolled in four-year public universities.