1868 The 14th Amendment is ratified, granting citizenship, due process and equal protection under the law. 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson: The Supreme Court finds that separate but equal public facilities are constitutional. Subsequent to this decision, many states enact laws which impose racial segregation in educational settings. 1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded by a multiracial group of activists. They initially called themselves the National Negro Committee. 1945 A law passes prohibiting the exclusion of children between the ages of 4 and 20 years from any public school in New Jersey because of race, creed, color, national origin or ancestry. 1948 President Truman integrates the military and civil services. 1950 Linda Brown is denied enrollment at a white elementary school in Topeka, Kansas. In the fall of 1950, the Browns and twelve Topeka families are asked by the NAACP to try and enroll their children in their neighborhood white schools, with the expectation that they would be rejected. 1951 Five separate cases are filed in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware:
While each case has its unique elements, all are brought on the behalf of elementary school children, and all involve black schools that are inferior to white schools. Most important, rather than just challenging the inferiority of the separate schools, each case claims that the “separate but equal” ruling violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The lower courts rule against the plaintiffs in each case, noting the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling of the United States Supreme Court as precedent. In the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, the federal district court even cites the injurious effects of segregation on black children, but holds that separate but equal is still not a violation of the U.S. Constitution. It is clear to those involved that the only effective route to terminating segregation in public schools is going to be through the United States Supreme Court. 1952 The Supreme Court agrees to hear all five cases collectively. This grouping is significant because it represents school segregation as a national issue, not just a southern one. Thurgood Marshall, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs, and his fellow lawyers provide testimony from more than 30 social scientists affirming the deleterious effects of segregation on blacks and whites. The lawyers for the school boards base their defense primarily on precedent, such as the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling, as well as on the importance of states’ rights in matters relating to education. Realizing the significance of their decision and being divided among themselves, the Supreme Court justices takes until June 1953 to decide that they would rehear arguments for all five cases. The arguments are scheduled for the following term, at which time the Court wants to hear both sides’ opinions of what Congress had in mind regarding school segregation when the 14th Amendment was originally passed. 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivers the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools is a violation of the 14th Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. This historic decision ends the separate but equal precedent set by the Supreme Court nearly 60 years earlier and serves as a catalyst for the expanding civil rights movement during the decade of the 1950s. 1954 In the wake of the decision, the District of Columbia and some school districts in the border states begin to desegregate their schools voluntarily. State legislatures in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia adopt resolutions of “interposition and nullification” that declare the Court’s decision to be “null, void, and no effect.” Various southern legislatures pass laws that imposed sanctions on anyone who implements desegregation, and enacts school closing plans that authorize the suspension of public education and the disbursement of public funds to parents to send their children to private schools. 1955 The Supreme Court holds that states must implement the court’s 1954 segregation mandate, “with all deliberate speed.” This is viewed as a concession for southern segregationists who want a gradual implementation approach. 1957 Arkansas State Conference President, Daisy Bates, fights to integrate nine black students into segregated Central High School. President Dwight Eisenhower eventually federalizes the Arkansas National Guard to provide protection to the nine students as they enter Central High School. 1964 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and President Johnson signs it. The act outlaws race and gender discrimination in voting, public accommodations and employment. Title VI of the act, which prohibits discrimination in education, becomes a major tool of desegregation efforts. 1972 The Emergency School Aid Act passes the United States Congress, which provides funds to eliminate minority group isolation. 2001 The NAACP National Education Department issues the Call for Action in Education requesting governors to develop Education Equity Partnership Plans, which outline the states’ strategies for reducing the education-related racial disparities in their states by 50 percent over five years. 2003 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in a 5-4 decision in Grutter vs. Bollinger that diversity can be a compelling government interest. It found that the University of Michigan Law School’s efforts to maintain a “critical mass” of minority students did not amount to using an illegal quota. In Gratz vs. Bollinger, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a 6-3 decision in the University of Michigan undergraduate case that “racial preferences could be used in admissions, but that the school’s mechanical, point-based approach was not “narrowly tailored” to achieve the goal of a diverse student body. —By Josephine A. Kane, Director of Publications, New Jersey School Boards Association |
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