lawyer who argued brown v board of education

by Asa Emmerich 7 min read

Charles Hamilton Houston played an invaluable role in dismantling segregation and mentoring the crop of civil rights lawyers who would ultimately litigate and win Brown v Board of Education. At Howard Law School, he served as Thurgood Marshall's mentor and his eventual employer at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

What are facts about Brown v . Board of Education?

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. The Court's decision partially overruled its 1896 decision Plessy v.

What were the effects of Brown v . Board of Education?

Resources

  • Brown v. Board of Education Timeline
  • Biographies of Key Figures
  • Related Primary Sources: Photographs from the Dorothy Davis Case

Why did Brown vs Board of Education happen?

Why did Brown vs Board of Education happen? In his lawsuit, Brown claimed that schools for Black children were not equal to the white schools, and that segregation violated the so-called “equal protection clause” of the 14th Amendment, which holds that no state can “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

What was the significance of Brown v . Board of Education?

Board of Education National Historic Site, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site

  • Segregation in Schools. ...
  • NAACP Challenges Segregation in Court. ...
  • Separate, but Equal has 'no place' The Supreme Court Justices heard the case in the spring, but were unable to decide the issue by the end of the court's term ...
  • Brown V Board Quick Facts. ...

Why was Brown v. Board of Education important?

Who was the dean of Howard University in the Brown v. Board of Education case?

What was the Bolling case?

What was the precedent in Ferguson v. Brown?

Who was the plaintiff in the Belton v. Gebhart case?

Who was the lead defendant in Bolling v. Sharpe?

Who was involved in the Briggs case?

See more

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Who was the lawyer in Brown v. Board of Education?

Thurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall Marshall, who also served as lead counsel in the Brown v. Board of Education case, went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history.

Who was the attorney lawyer that helped to win the case of Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka in 1954?

Thurgood MarshallIn Brown v. Board of Education, the attorney for the plaintiffs was Thurgood Marshall. He later became, in 1967, the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Who opposed Brown vs Board?

By 1956, Senator Byrd had created a coalition of nearly 100 Southern politicians to sign on to his “Southern Manifesto” an agreement to resist the implementation of Brown.

Did Thurgood Marshall argue Brown v Board?

May 17, 1954 was our second Emancipation Proclamation. Other than his historic appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall is best known for the landmark case he argued before the court thirteen years earlier: Brown v. Board of Education.

Did Thurgood Marshall win the Brown vs Board of Education?

Having won these cases, and thus, establishing precedents for chipping away Jim Crow laws in higher education, Marshall succeeded in having the Supreme Court declare segregated public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Who wrote the dissenting opinion in Brown v. Board of Education?

In South Carolina, Judge J. Waties Waring issued a dissenting opinion in which he called segregation in education “an evil that must be eradicated.” In Delaware, the court found that the 11 Black children named in the case were entitled to attend the white school in their communities.

What did Earl Warren and Thurgood Marshall do?

The pivotal roles of Thurgood Marshall and Earl Warren on the arguing and deciding of Brown v. Board of Education makes them vital and influential players in the American story of race relations and the evolution of the American judicial tradition.

What was Thurgood Marshall famous quote?

Here are some of his most powerful quotes: "Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it.

Who is regarded as the intellectual architect of the Brown vs Board of Education case?

Tomiko Brown-Nagin talks about the legacy of Charles Hamilton Houston, the architect of the legal strategy that led to the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education.

Who were the US Supreme Court Justices during Brown v. Board of ...

Who wrote the Supreme Court opinion for Brown v. Board of Education? The Supreme Court opinion for Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was written by Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Who was involved in brown v board of education

Who was the defendant in Brown vs Board of Education? When a District of Columbia parent, Gardner Bishop, unsuccessfully attempted to get eleven African-American students admitted into a newly constructed white junior high school , he and the Consolidated Parents Group filed suit against C. Melvin Sharpe, president of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia.

Brown v. Board of Education - Case Summary and Case Brief

Case Summary of Brown v. Board of Education: Oliver Brown was denied admission into a white school; As a representative of a class action suit, Brown filed a claim alleging that laws permitting segregation in public schools were a violation of the 14 th Amendment equal protection clause.; After the District Court upheld segregation using Plessy v.

Who was the defendant in brown vs board of education

What started the Brown vs Board of Education? It began by analyzing Article 8, Section 1 of the Georgia constitution, which required local boards to provide a thorough system of free elementary schools for English education —with separate schools for white and black students—the cost of which would be supported by tax funds “or otherwise.” (Three years earlier in

Description

The U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, was bundled with four related cases and a decision was rendered on May 17, 1954. Three lawyers, Thurgood Marshall (center), chief counsel for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and lead attorney on the Briggs case, with George E. C. Hayes (left) and James M.

Source-Dependent Questions

The phrase "equal justice under law" is featured in this photograph. It was proposed by the architects planning the U.S. Supreme Court building and then approved by the justices in 1932. What does “equal justice under law” mean?

Citation Information

"George E. C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit congratulating each other on the Brown decision," Associated Press, 17 May 1954. Courtesy of Library of Congress

Why was Brown v. Board of Education important?

This grouping of cases from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware was significant because it represented school segregation as a national issue, not just a southern one. Each case was brought on the behalf of elementary school children, involving all-Black schools that were inferior to white schools.

Who was the dean of Howard University in the Brown v. Board of Education case?

Their case eventually became one of five included in the landmark 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education. Spottswood W. Robinson, III, who was born in 1916, taught law at Howard University, in Washington, DC, and eventually became dean of the school. He made his mark on the history of Brown v.

What was the Bolling case?

Although Bolling is historically considered one of the Brown v. Board of Education bundle cases, it was a different case due to the legal arguments.

What was the precedent in Ferguson v. Brown?

Ferguson ruling of the United States Supreme Court as precedent. The plaintiffs claimed that the "separate but equal" ruling violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v.

Who was the plaintiff in the Belton v. Gebhart case?

Ethel Louise Belton#N#Ethel Belton and six other adults filed suit on behalf of eight Black children against Francis B. Gebhart and 12 others (both individuals and state education agencies) in the case Belton v. Gebhart. The plaintiffs sued the state for denying to the children admission to certain public schools because of color or ancestry. The Belton case was joined with another very similar Delaware case, Bulah v. Gebhart, and both would ultimately join four other NAACP cases in the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Belton was born in 1937 and died in 1981.

Who was the lead defendant in Bolling v. Sharpe?

C. Melvin Sharpe , acting as President of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia from 1948 to 1957, was named as the lead defendant in the case Bolling v. Sharpe. Earl Warren. Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was born in 1891, secured a unanimous decision in Brown v.

Who was involved in the Briggs case?

Board of Education case because of his role in the Briggs case. Carter secured the pivotal involvement of social scientists, particularly Kenneth B. Clark, who provided evidence in the Briggs case on segregation's devastating effects on the psyches of Black children. Harold R. Fatzer.

Who was the chief attorney for Brown v. Board of Education?

Board of Education of Topeka . Thurgood Marshall, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, served as chief attorney for the plaintiffs.

When did Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka come to the Supreme Court?

When Brown’s case and four other cases related to school segregation first came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court combined them into a single case under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka .

When was the Separate But Equal doctrine first ruled?

Separate But Equal Doctrine. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racially segregated public facilities were legal, so long as the facilities for Black people and whites were equal.

Who replaced Vinson in Brown v. Board of Education?

But in September 1953, before Brown v. Board of Education was to be heard, Vinson died, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower replaced him with Earl Warren, then governor of California.

What states acted in accordance with the verdict?

While Kansas and some other states acted in accordance with the verdict, many school and local officials in the South defied it. In one major example, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called out the state National Guard to prevent Black students from attending high school in Little Rock in 1957.

What did the Federal District Court say about the Brown v. Board of Education case?

Board of Education, the Federal district court even cited the injurious effects of segregation on Black children, but held that "separate but equal" was still not a violation of the Constitution.

When did the Brown v Board of Education case take place?

Reargument of the Brown v. Board of Education cases at the Federal level took place December 7-9 , 1953. Throngs of spectators lined up outside the Supreme Court by sunrise on the morning of December 7, although arguments did not actually commence until one o'clock that afternoon. Spottswood Robinson began the argument for the appellants, and Thurgood Marshall followed him. Virginia's Assistant Attorney General, T. Justin Moore, followed Marshall, and then the court recessed for the evening.

What was the last case in the Belton vs. Gebhart case?

The last case listed in the order of arguments, Belton v. Gebhart , was actually two nearly identical cases (the other being Bulah v . Gebhart ), both originating in the state of Delaware in 1952. Ethel Belton was one of the parents listed as plaintiffs in the case brought in Claymont, while Sarah Bulah brought suit in the town of Hockessin, Delaware. While both of these plaintiffs brought suit because their African-American children had to attend inferior schools, Sarah Bulah's situation was unique in that she was a white woman with an adopted Black child, who was still subject to the segregation laws of the state. Local attorney Louis Redding, Delaware's only African-American attorney at the time, originally argued both cases in Delaware's Court of Chancery. NAACP attorney Jack Greenberg assisted Redding. Belton/Bulah v. Gebhart was argued at the Federal level by Delaware's attorney general, H. Albert Young.

What was the Davis v. County School Board case?

Marshall also argued the Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, case at the Federal level. Originally filed in May of 1951 by plaintiff's attorneys Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill, the Davis case, like the others, argued that Virginia's segregated schools were unconstitutional because they violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. And like the Briggs case, Virginia's three-judge panel ruled against the 117 students who were identified as plaintiffs in the case. (For more on this case, see Photographs from the Dorothy Davis Case .)

What was the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson?

Ferguson. In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Plessy, a Black man from Louisiana, challenged the constitutionality of segregated railroad coaches, first in the state courts and then in the U. S. Supreme Court.

What states were involved in the segregation of elementary schools?

Five separate cases were filed in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware: Oliver Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al.

What was the Board of Education case?

Board of Education case of 1954 legally ended decades of racial segregation in America's public schools. Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.

Who were the judges in Brown v. Board of Education?

U.S. circuit judges (from left to right) Robert A. Katzmann, Damon J. Keith, and Sonia Sotomayor at a 2004 exhibit on the Fourteenth Amendment, Thurgood Marshall, and Brown v. Board of Education

What was the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka?

483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality.

What did the Southerners view Brown as?

Many Southern white Americans viewed Brown as "a day of catastrophe —a Black Monday —a day something like Pearl Harbor ." In the face of entrenched Southern opposition, progress on integrating American schools moved slowly:

How many pages did the Brown II decision have?

However, the decision's 14 pages did not spell out any sort of method for ending racial segregation in schools, and the Court's second decision in Brown II ( 349 U.S. 294 (1955)) only ordered states to desegregate "with all deliberate speed".

Why was the Board of Education of Topeka named after Oliver Brown?

The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" was named after Oliver Brown as a legal strategy to have a man at the head of the roster. The lawyers, and the National Chapter of the NAACP, also felt that having Mr. Brown at the head of the roster would be better received by the U.S. Supreme Court Justices.

When did Brown II take place?

In 1955, the Supreme Court considered arguments by the schools requesting relief concerning the task of desegregation. In their decision, which became known as " Brown II " the court delegated the task of carrying out school desegregation to district courts with orders that desegregation occur "with all deliberate speed," a phrase traceable to Francis Thompson 's poem, " The Hound of Heaven ."

When did the Brown ruling happen in North Carolina?

In North Carolina, there was often a strategy of nominally accepting Brown, but tacitly resisting it. On May 18, 1954, the Greensboro, North Carolina school board declared that it would abide by the Brown ruling. This was the result of the initiative of D. E. Hudgins Jr., a former Rhodes Scholar and prominent attorney, who chaired the school board. This made Greensboro the first, and for years the only, city in the South, to announce its intent to comply. However, others in the city resisted integration, putting up legal obstacles to the actual implementation of school desegregation for years afterward, and in 1969, the federal government found the city was not in compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Transition to a fully integrated school system did not begin until 1971, after numerous local lawsuits and both nonviolent and violent demonstrations. Historians have noted the irony that Greensboro, which had heralded itself as such a progressive city, was one of the last holdouts for school desegregation.

What was the landmark decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education?

Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the U.S. Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for students of different races to be unconstitutional.

Which amendment prohibited the operation of separate public schools based on race?

The Justices decided to rehear the case in the fall with special attention paid to whether the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prohibited the operation of separate public schools based on race.

How many families were involved in the Topeka class action lawsuit?

n 1950, the Topeka Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized another case, this time a class action suit comprised of 13 families.

When did the NAACP appeal to the Supreme Court?

The plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1952 and were joined by four similar NAACP-sponsored cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

When did black parents start filing court challenges in Kansas?

African American parents in Kansas began filing court challenges as early as 1881. By 1950, 11 court challenges to segregated schools had reached the Kansas State Supreme Court. None of the cases successfully overturned the state law.

When did Warren support Mexican students?

Warren had supported the integration of Mexican-American students in California school systems in 1947, after Mendez v. Westminster and when Brown v. Board of Education was reheard, Warren was able to bring the Justices to a unanimous decision. On May 14, 1954, Chief Justice Warren delivered the opinion of the Court, stating, "We conclude that, ...

When did segregation begin in Kansas?

Segregation in Schools. Elementary schools in Kansas had been segregated since 1879 by a state law allowing cities with populations of 15,000 or more to establish separate schools for black children and white children. African American parents in Kansas began filing court challenges as early as 1881.

What was the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education?

Board of Education declaring that the “separate but equal” regime of segregation within public education was unconstitutional under ...

Who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during the Brown v. Board of Education case?

Earl Warren was serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Not only did Warren believe that segregation was legally insensible, but he sought to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson, a previous case which had upheld the practice of segregating schools, with an unanimous verdict.

What Supreme Court case is Ferguson?

Ferguson stands among cases like Dred Scott v. Sandford and Korematsu v. Unit ed States as Supreme Court decisions that are nearly universally condemned by lawyers, scholars, and citizens across the nation.

Which decision cemented public school segregation in law in 1896?

Ferguson decision that cemented public school segregation in law in 1896: “the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff’s argument [is that] the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority.

Who was the first black justice?

Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from August 30, 1967 until his retirement on October 1, 1991 — becoming the first Black American to hold this position. Prior to his career on the Supreme Court however, Marshall served as the Director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and represented the Brown family during ...

Why was Brown v. Board of Education important?

This grouping of cases from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware was significant because it represented school segregation as a national issue, not just a southern one. Each case was brought on the behalf of elementary school children, involving all-Black schools that were inferior to white schools.

Who was the dean of Howard University in the Brown v. Board of Education case?

Their case eventually became one of five included in the landmark 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education. Spottswood W. Robinson, III, who was born in 1916, taught law at Howard University, in Washington, DC, and eventually became dean of the school. He made his mark on the history of Brown v.

What was the Bolling case?

Although Bolling is historically considered one of the Brown v. Board of Education bundle cases, it was a different case due to the legal arguments.

What was the precedent in Ferguson v. Brown?

Ferguson ruling of the United States Supreme Court as precedent. The plaintiffs claimed that the "separate but equal" ruling violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v.

Who was the plaintiff in the Belton v. Gebhart case?

Ethel Louise Belton#N#Ethel Belton and six other adults filed suit on behalf of eight Black children against Francis B. Gebhart and 12 others (both individuals and state education agencies) in the case Belton v. Gebhart. The plaintiffs sued the state for denying to the children admission to certain public schools because of color or ancestry. The Belton case was joined with another very similar Delaware case, Bulah v. Gebhart, and both would ultimately join four other NAACP cases in the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Belton was born in 1937 and died in 1981.

Who was the lead defendant in Bolling v. Sharpe?

C. Melvin Sharpe , acting as President of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia from 1948 to 1957, was named as the lead defendant in the case Bolling v. Sharpe. Earl Warren. Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was born in 1891, secured a unanimous decision in Brown v.

Who was involved in the Briggs case?

Board of Education case because of his role in the Briggs case. Carter secured the pivotal involvement of social scientists, particularly Kenneth B. Clark, who provided evidence in the Briggs case on segregation's devastating effects on the psyches of Black children. Harold R. Fatzer.

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Plessy v. Ferguson

The NAACP

  • In 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was officially formed to champion the modern Civil Rights Movement. In its early years its primary goals were to eliminate lynching and to obtain fair trials for Black Americans. By the 1930s, however, the activities of the NAACP began focusing on the complete integration of American society. One o…
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Five Cases Consolidated Under Brown v. Board of Education

  • By the 1950s, the NAACP was beginning to support challenges to segregation at the elementary school level. Five separate cases were filed in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware: 1. Oliver Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al. 2. Harry Briggs, Jr., et al. v. R.W. Elliott, et al. 3. Dorothy E. Davis et al. v. County Sc…
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Supreme Court Rehears Arguments

  • Reargument of the Brown v. Board of Educationcases at the Federal level took place December 7-9, 1953. Throngs of spectators lined up outside the Supreme Court by sunrise on the morning of December 7, although arguments did not actually commence until one o'clock that afternoon. Spottswood Robinson began the argument for the appellants, and Thurgoo...
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The Warren Court

  • In September 1953, President Eisenhower had appointed Earl Warren, governor of California, as the new Supreme Court chief justice. Eisenhower believed Warren would follow a moderate course of action toward desegregation. His feelings regarding the appointment are detailed in the closing paragraphs of a letter he wrote to E. E. "Swede" Hazlett, a childhood friend (shown above…
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The Supreme Court Ruling

  • Finally, on May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the unanimous opinion: school segregation by law was unconstitutional (shown above). Arguments were to be heard during the next term to determine exactly how the ruling would be imposed. Just over one year later, on May 31, 1955, Warren read the Court's unanimous decision, now referred to as Brown II(also shown a…
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Reaction

  • Despite two unanimous decisions and careful, if not vague, wording, there was considerable resistance to the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. In addition to the obvious disapproving segregationists were some constitutional scholars who felt that the decision went against legal tradition by relying heavily on data supplied by social scientists rather than precede…
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