Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

School Segregation, Equal Protection

In Topeka, Kansas in the 1950s, schools were segregated by race. Each day, Linda Brown and her sister had to walk through a dangerous railroad switch yard to get to the bus stop for the ride to their all-black elementary school. There was a school closer to the Brown's house, but it was only for white students. Linda Brown and her family believed that the segregated school system violated the Fourteenth Amendment and took their case to court. Federal district court decided that segregation in public education was harmful to black children, but because all-black schools and all-white schools had similar buildings, transportation, curricula, and teachers, the segregation was legal. The Browns appealed their case to Supreme Court stating that even if the facilities were similar, segregated schools could never be equal to one another.

Directions: You are the Supreme Court Justices ruling on this case.

Answer the following questions

1.Which specific rights and amendments are being addressed in this case? How does each party, the plaintiff and the defendant argue their side?

2.Would you rule for the plaintiff or the defendant? Explain the reason for your ruling.

3.Which of the 4 methods of analyzing the Constitution did you use?

4.What argument might another Supreme Court Justice have for ruling against your ruling?

( Remember you need to use the Constitution to support your arguments by citing specific rights and amendments.

When reading the name of the case, the plaintiff name comes first and the defendant name comes second: plaintiff v. defendant.

Pay close attention to the dates of the cases. This will help you understand the context of what was happening at the United States at the time.

There is no right or wrong answer as long as you support your ruling with the Constitution. Justices disagree on rulings all the time.)