1954: Oliver Brown and the Education of Black Children

1900-1999: A New Divide
Written By Stephanie Brizee

Big Idea

Residential segregation created unequal educational opportunities for Black children. Oliver Brown and other Black families in Topeka, Kansas, sued to allow their children to attend nearby White schools. The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling ended the “separate but equal” policy, providing a legal basis to combat segregation in education and other aspects of American life.

What’s important to know?

  1. Oliver L. Brown: Oliver Brown, the father of a young student in the Topeka, Kansas school district, joined a group of Black parents suing the Topeka for the right to send their children to local schools.

  2. The U.S. Supreme Court: The U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Plessy v. Ferguson case which had validated “separate but equal.” They demanded the desegregation of schools across the United States.

1: Oliver L. Brown

Rev. Oliver L. Brown

Image Source: National Park Service

Oliver Leon Brown was a welder in Topeka, Kansas, studying to enter the ministry when he was asked by his local NAACP to join a group of 13 other Black parents in a lawsuit they planned to bring against the school district. Because of segregated requirements in Kansas, Black children were bused long distances from home, while White students attended elementary schools close to their homes. Mr. Brown’s daughter, Linda, had to travel 24 blocks to get to her segregated elementary school — one of only 4 such schools for Black children in the Topeka region, while there were 18 designated for White students.

The NAACP brought the suit in 1951. As expected, they lost their initial case but the Supreme Court agreed to hear it along with similar ones from four other states - South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington D.C. (National Park Service)

Thurgood Marshall (later Supreme Court Justice) represented Oliver Brown’s daughter, Linda, in the case. He was head of the NAACP Legal Education Defense Fund and is credited with crafting the strategy that the plaintiffs used in arguing the case. In total, Marshall argued 32 cases before the supreme court with Brown v. Board of Education being one of the most well-known. (NAACP)

Community Members

Did you know? In 1959, the Brown family relocated to Springfield, Missouri. Mr. Brown had completed his training for the ministry and became pastor of the Benton Avenue A.M.E. Church. Read more about the church here.

2: The U.S. Supreme Court

Linda Brown Smith, Ethel Louise Belton Brown, Harry Briggs, Jr., and Spottswood Bolling, Jr. during press conference at Hotel Americana. 1964. June 9.

Image Source: Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/95503560/.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown et al, arguing that the prior precedent established by Plessy v. Ferguson was wrong and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The newly appointed Chief Justice, Earl Warren, delivered the ruling on the case, excerpts of which are included below:

“The plaintiffs contend that segregated public schools are not "equal" and cannot be made "equal," and that hence they are deprived of the equal protection of the laws…. In approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868, when the Amendment was adopted, or even to 1896, when Plessy v. Ferguson was written. We must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation.

Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.

We come then to the question presented: does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.” (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954, emphasize added.)

Students

Want to learn more? Watch the movie below about the Brown v. Board of Education decision and its significance.

Video from Crash Course Black American History.

Your Turn

What was the impact of Brown v. Board of Education? Has the promise envisioned in the ruling born out in furthering equality in education for Black people across the United States?

    • Read more about Benton A.M.E. Church in Springfield, Missouri where Oliver Brown pastored after winning the case in Brown v. Board of Education.

    • Brown, L. T. (2022). The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America. Johns Hopkins University Press.

    • Sheryll Cashin, Brown v. Board of Education: Enduring Caste and American Betrayal, 4 Am. J.L. & Equality 141-162 (2024).

    • Connelly, N. D. B. (2014). A World More Concrete: Real Estate and the Remaking of Jim Crow South Florida. University of Chicago Press.

    • Moore, N. Y. (2019). South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation. Picador Paper.

    • Taylor, K-Y. (2019). Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership. University of North Carolina Press.

Stephanie Brizee
Previous

1949: Pruitt-Igoe, Bertha Gilkey, and Public Housing Projects
Next

1955: You Will See the Results of Hate