Brown V. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution
- ISBN-10
- 0700612890
- ISBN-13
- 9780700612895
- Series
- Brown V. Board of Education
- Category
- Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies
- Pages
- 292
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2003
- Publisher
- University Press of Kansas
- Authors
- Robert J. Cottrol, Raymond T. Diamond, Leland Ware
Description
Before 1954, both law and custom mandated strict racial segregation throughout much of the nation. That began to change with Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark decision that overturned the pernicious "separate but equal" doctrine. In declaring that legally mandated school segregation was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court played a critical role in helping to dismantle America's own version of apartheid, Jim Crow.
This new study of Brown—the title for a group of cases drawn from Kansas, Virginia, South Carolina, Delaware, and the District of Columbia—offers an insightful and original overview designed expressly for students and general readers. It is concise, up-to-date, highly readable, and very teachable.
The authors, all recognized authorities on legal history and civil rights law, do an admirable job of examining the fight for legal equality in its broad cultural and historical context. They convincingly show that Brown cannot be understood apart from the history of caste and exclusion in American society. That history antedated the very founding of the country and was supported by the nation's highest institutions, including the Supreme Court whose decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) supported the notion of "separate but equal."
Their book traces the lengthy court litigations, highlighting the pivotal role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and including incisive portraits of key players, including co-plaintiff Oliver Brown, newly appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren, NAACP lawyer and future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, and Justice Felix Frankfurter, who recognized the crucial importance of a unanimous court decision and helped produce it. The authors simply but powerfully narrate the obstacles these individuals faced and the opportunities they grasped and clearly show that there was much more at stake than educational rights. Brown not only changed the national equation of race and caste—it also changed our view of the Court's role in American life.
The dramatic story of the road to and from Brown, despite the retrenchments of recent years, needs to be heard anew. As we prepare to commemorate the decision's fiftieth anniversary in May 2004, this book invites readers to walk that road again and appreciate the lasting importance of what is indisputably a landmark case.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2022-07-29
- 36 pages
- Paperback
- Teacher Created Materials
-
- 2022-07-29
- 36 pages
- Paperback
- Teacher Created Materials
Similar books
-
What Brown V. Board of Education Should Have Said: The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Landmark Civil Rights Decision
By Bruce A. AckermanIn this volume, nine of America's top constitutional and civil rights experts have been challenged to rewrite the Brown decision as they would like it to have been written, incorporating what they now know about the subsequent history of ...
-
Brown V. Board of Education: Integrating America's Schools
By Tim McNeeseHere is the story of the relentless legal campaign launched by the NAACP civil rights organization and a persistent black lawyer named Thurgood Marshall, and how it changed history forever. Brown v.
-
Brown V. Board of Education: The Case for Integration
By Judith ConawayDiscusses the circumstances leading up to the 1954 Supreme Court case that fought segregation in American schools and the results and repercussions of the case.
-
The Unfinished Agenda of Brown V. Board of Education
By James Anderson, Dara N. ByrneA provocative and inspiring exploration of a pivotal moment in our history, this book is both a celebration and thorough reassessment of Brown v. Board of Education and its legacy.
-
Brown V. Board of Education: Equal Schooling for All
By Harvey Fireside, Sarah Betsy FullerPresents background information, the case itself, & the far-reaching impact it has had. - A library of the most important United States Supreme Court cases. Examines the issues leading up...
-
Brown V. Board of Education at Fifty: A Rhetorical Retrospective
By Clarke RountreeThe story of Brown v. Board of Education is a half-century old now and has been retold many times by historians, legal scholars, sociologists, and others.
-
Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents
By Waldo MartinThis new edition of Brown v.
-
Educational Freedom in Urban America: Brown V. Board After Half a Century
By David F. Salisbury, Casey LartigueExposes the modern barriers that deprive inner-city children of a good education and calls for increased school choice as the most effective way to achieve the goals of Brown v....
-
Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka
By Sharon J. WilsonVivid details, well-chosen photographs, and primary sources bring this story and this case to life. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Core Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
-
Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy
By James T. PattersonA wide range of characters animates the story, from the little-known African Americans who dared to challenge Jim Crow with lawsuits (at great personal cost); to Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Justice himself; to Earl Warren, who ...