The Board of EducationDuring the 1950's, Blacks slowly prospered along side Whites, but they werestill being denied opportunities simply on the basis of race. The fortunes of minoritieswould soon change again; or so it would seem.. The 1954 Supreme Court ruling in thecase of Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, placed a damagingblow to the hearts of many White segregationists. A Black family challenged the segregation policies of the Topeka schooldistrict. While living just two blocks from a local area school, Linda Brown had totravel twenty-one blocks to attend an all Black school. The NAACP saw this asexcellent opportunity to challenge the Separate but Equal segregationist policies andfiled the brief on behalf of the Brown family. They would argue that the FourteenthAmendment indicated that the policy established by the 1896 Plessy vs. Fergusonruling was unconstitutional. Earlier battle had been won, but this was the case thatwould test the constitutionality of segregation. Thurgood Marshall presented the briefbefore the Court. When the decision came in, all nine justices voted that the policy ofSeparate but Equal was unconstitutional. The courts ordered immediate desegregationof public schools. Blacks, for the first time in the nation's history, would be admittedto Southern White schools, at least in theory. Americans were shocked by the ruling and White parents were spurred intoaction as White citizens counsels were formed throughout the South. In 1957,members of these groups came from all over the South to stop the admittance of nineBlack students to a local Little Rock high school. Arkansas Governor Orville Faubusorder the national guard to bar admittance of the Black students. The events thatfollowed were broadcasts on national television and America's Southern hospitality,racism, was revealed to the world. The television cameras were rolling as White mobsthreatend the Black students with physical harm as they un...
