How Does Brown v. Board of Education Impact People’s Lives?

By Jay Park on February 12, 2024

May 17, 1954, marks one of the most relevant and remembered historical moments of American history. That is because on that day, the Supreme Court declared the separate but equal unconstitutional law. Although this case was unanimous in the end, it was achieved with many years of fighting to gain this win.

Brown is not one case, but 5 different cases against school districts of Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, and Columbia starting since december 1952 the cases were delivered wonderfully by Thurgood Marshall, who became LDF’s first Director-Counsel.

After the 5 cases were heard in court in 1952 December, the results were unclear. The court gave questions about the intent of the Congressmen and Senators who framed the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. and about the Court’s power to dismantle segregation, then scheduled another oral argument in 1953 December. Exactly a year after.

In Brown II, Marshall gave out strong arguments and said that the intent of segregation is to keep the people who were formerly in slavery as near to that stage as is possible. But even with Marshall’s strong arguments, it took 5 months for the court to make a unanimous decision. Realizing how controversial this topic is, the court took a year to order a rule to enforce the decision of Brown II, but still then didn’t give a timetable to make the rule official. Unfortunately, the degradation of racism in school was not fast but slow. LDF sued many schools to show them that the law is real

Even though brown might look like it might have not done anything, but years and years after the cases, it marked the end to racial segregation in schools in America, improving many people’s lives at school, and overall reduced racism in America, and inspired many countries later on to put an end to racism.