United States
Brown v. Board of Education
First Edition©1998 New Edition Available Waldo E. Martin
Addressing the origins, development, meanings, and consequences of the 1954 Supreme Court decision to end Jim Crow segregation, Brown v. Board of Education presents the case as an event, a symbol, and a key marker in the black liberation struggle.
Table of Contents
Foreword Preface Introduction: Shades of Brown: Black Freedom, White Supremacy, and the Law Historical Backdrop: The Constitution, the Law, and Fighting Jim Crow The Evolution of the NAACP Legal Campaign Against Jim Crow The NAACP’s Legal Strategy Challenged The Growing Anti-Racist Offensive: An American Dilemma Confronts World War II Continuity and Change in the Legal Struggle: Equality, Equalization, and Direct Attack Politics, Social Change, and Decision-Making within the Supreme Court: The Crafting of Brown The Brown Decision: Immediate Response and Immediate Consequences 1. Roberts v. City of Boston (1849) A Petition on Behalf of Black Inclusion in the Boston Common Schools, October 17, 1787 Maria W. Stewart, A Black Teacher’s Travail, 1850s Fugitive Slave Poster, 1851 Charles Sumner, Brief for Public School Integration, 1849 Massachusetts Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, Opinion of the Court in Roberts v. City of Boston, 1849 2. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Henry McNeal Turner, "Civil Rights: The Outrage of the Supreme Court of the United States upon the Black Man," 1889 Ida B. Wells-Barnett, "The Case Stated," 1895 Paul Laurence Dunbar, "We Wear the Mask," 1895 Justice Henry Brown, Majority Opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 Justice John Marshall Harlan, Dissenting Opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 3. Sweatt v. Painter (1950) and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950) "Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916-1918," 1919 Langston Hughes, "I, Too," 1926 W. E. B. DuBois, "Does the Negro Need Separate Schools?" 1935 Gunnar Myrdal, From An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, 1944 The Petitioner’s Brief in Sweatt v. Painter, 1950 Chief Justice Fred Vinson, Opinion of the Court in Sweatt v. Painter, 1950 Chief Justice Fred Vinson, Opinion of the Court in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, 1950 4. Brown v. Board of Education (1952-55) Mississippi Voter Registration Form, 1955 The Lower Court Round: Preliminary Deliberations Judge John J. Parker, Decision in Briggs v. Elliott, 1951 Judge J. Waties Waring, Dissent in Briggs v. Elliott, 1951 The Supreme Court Rounds: The Making of Brown I and Brown II Round One: Setting the Stage Appellants’ Brief, 1952 "The Effects of Segregation and the Consequences of Desegregation: A Social Science Statement," Appendix to Appellants’ Brief Appellees’ Brief, 1952 Round Two: Reargument on Original Intent and Possible Relief The Supreme Court’s Order: The Questions, 1953 Appellants’ Brief, 1953 Appellees’ Brief, 1953 Federal Friend-of-the-Court Brief, 1953 Chief Justice Earl Warren, Opinion of the Court in Brown v. Board of Education, May 17, 1954 Round Three: Reargument on Remedy – Immediate or Gradual? Appellants’ Brief, 1954 Appellees’ Brief, 1954 Appellants’ Reply Brief, 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren, Ruling on Relief, May 31, 1955 5. Popular Response to Brown Newspaper Editorials "All God’s Chillun," Times (New York), May 18, 1954 The Decision of a Century, Daily World (Atlanta), May 18, 1954 Will Stun Communists, Courier (Pittsburgh), May 18, 1954 End of Dual Society, Defender (Chicago), May 18, 1954 Emancipation, Post and Times Herald (Washington, D.C.), May 18, 1954 The Supreme Court Has Given Us Time, Constitution (Atlanta), May 18, 1954 Bloodstains on White Marble Steps, Daily News (Jackson, Miss.), May 18, 1954 The Pattern of the Future, Gazette (Arkansas), May 18, 1954 Equality Redefined, Herald (Boston), May 18, 1954 The Segregation Decision, Times (Los Angeles), May 19, 1954 "Violates" Way of Life, Cavalier Daily, University of Virginia, May 18, 1954 Adjustment Held Difficult, Mississippian, University of Mississippi, May 18, 1954 Letters to Editors Times (New York), May 31, 1954 Sentinel (Orlando), August 11, 1955 Political Cartoons Chronicle (San Francisco), May 18, 1954 Christian Science Monitor (Boston), May 22, 1954 Democrat (Arkansas), May 22, 1954 Tennessean (Nashville), May 22, 1954 Afro-American (Richmond), May 22, 1954 Defender (Chicago), June 12, 1954 White Backlash The Southern Manifesto, March 12, 1956 White Citizen’s Council Notice National Progress Report: Realizing Integrated Schools Decade of Desegregation, Times (New York), May 17, 1964 Two Decades Later, Times (New York), May 17, 1974 The Enduring Promise of Brown, Times (New York), May 17, 1984 Forty Years and Still Struggling, Times (New York), May 18, 1994 Epilogue: The Legacy of Brown APPENDICES Chronology of Events Related to Brown v. Board of Education Selected Bibliography Index
Waldo E. Martin, Jr.
Waldo E. Martin Jr. (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of American History and Citizenship at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of No Coward Soldiers: Black Cultural Politics in Postwar America; Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents; The Mind of Frederick Douglass; and, with Joshua Bloom, the coauthor of Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party. With Patricia A. Sullivan, he serves as coeditor of the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture. Current projects include a forthcoming book on the impact of black cultural politics on the modern black freedom struggle.
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