| Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas | | | | timetable for desegregation. In short, the desegregation |
| stands as one of the most influential cases of the | | | | decided in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of |
| twentieth century in the United States legal system. | | | | Topeka, Kansas, was not strongly implemented |
| Brought to the Supreme Court via a conglomeration of | | | | following the verdict, but rather, it appeared as if the |
| lawsuits by the NAACP in 1953, Brown v. Board of | | | | Supreme Court lazily attempted to enforce its earlier |
| Education drastically changed the social climate of the | | | | landmark decision. Adding to these claims is the fact |
| United States, specifically in the southern states. As | | | | that many school districts, mostly in the southern |
| decided by the Warren Court, Brown v. Board of | | | | states, refused to integrate their schools at all following |
| Education is a landmark case in not only United States | | | | the verdict, as was the case with the school district of |
| law, but in the Civil Rights Movement of the twentieth | | | | Prince Edward County, Virginia, which the U.S. District |
| century as well. Chief Justice Warren used a variety | | | | Court ruled did not have to segregate immediately due |
| of argument in order to overrule the previously decided | | | | to the language used in the second case of Brown. |
| Supreme Court Case of Plessey v. Ferguson, but | | | | Since the Supreme Court was incredibly vague |
| none more important than the claim that "separate but | | | | regarding the way in which it demanded integration, |
| equal" educational facilities are inherently unequal and | | | | many school districts used this language as a |
| therefore contrary to the Constitution of the United | | | | justification for resisting the original ruling which |
| States. Warren also cited the case of Sweatt v. | | | | demanded integration. The implementation of the |
| Painter as a distinct legal precedent for the decision, | | | | Brown case was slower than previously imagined, and |
| observing that the concept of separate but equal | | | | made desegregation an ongoing process, rather than |
| facilities had already been deemed unconstitutional. In | | | | an immediate mandate, and essentially allowed the |
| implementing the landmark decision, the Supreme | | | | southern states to maintain the status quo in society |
| Court requested swift action from the localities in | | | | for many years after the decision while presenting the |
| compliance with the new legal precedent. Brown v. | | | | illusion of progress with a handful of desegregated |
| Board of Education of Topeka Kansas was not the | | | | schools. |
| only legal case regarding segregation, nor was it the | | | | The Supreme Courts ultimate method of |
| only successful one, but the victories it won for the | | | | implementation of the Brown decision was incredibly |
| Civil Rights Movement will forever place it among the | | | | inappropriate for the magnitude of the original case. |
| most important Supreme Court Cases of all time. | | | | Rather than mandating that schools desegregate |
| Chief Justice Warren used a variety of rationale to | | | | immediately, the Supreme Court chose rather to allow |
| support the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in | | | | its language to remain vague, allowing many of the |
| favor of Brown in the case of Brown v. Board of | | | | southern states to resist integration for many years |
| Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, the most | | | | after the official ruling. Through this implementation, |
| important of all these reasons is undoubtedly the claim | | | | many school districts used this vague language as a |
| by Warren that the separate but equal facilities | | | | legal excuse for resisting the original ruling for longer |
| maintained by many southern states as a requirement | | | | than necessary, and the fact that the Supreme Court |
| were inherently unequal by the fact that they | | | | left such an important decision up to such liberal |
| separated students by an unquantifiable difference, | | | | interpretation is rather shocking when the importance |
| and thus the doctrine itself was completely | | | | of the case in United States legal history is considered. |
| unconstitutional. Warren claimed that the separate but | | | | The implementation had far reaching consequences on |
| equal doctrine, although upheld in the previous case of | | | | the southern states and its society. Rather than |
| Plessey v. Ferguson, was completely unconstitutional | | | | drastically changing the southern way of life |
| due to the legal precedents of the time. Most influential | | | | immediately, the Supreme Court allowed many of the |
| of these legal precedents was the case of Sweatt v. | | | | southern states to maintain the status quo long after |
| Painter, in which a man sued the state of Texas for | | | | the official ruling of the Supreme Court officially |
| barring him from law school under the condition that he | | | | prevented them from doing so. The fact that the |
| was black. Though the defense argued that the state | | | | Supreme Court used such vague language was an |
| of Texas provided a more than adequate black law | | | | incredible miscalculation on the part of the Justices, and |
| school, the Supreme Court ruled that since the equality | | | | allowed their important ruling to go ignored and |
| of two graduate facilities could not be accurately | | | | unabided for many years after its verdict. |
| measured, it was impossible to determine whether the | | | | The importance of the case of Brown v. Board of |
| educational facilities were, in fact, equal, under the eyes | | | | Education of Topeka, Kansas cannot be lost on any |
| of the law. This vague concept of educational equality | | | | student of the American legal system. It was one of |
| was the very concept upon which Chief Justice | | | | only approximately two hundred times in which the |
| Warren rested his entire verdict. Since no | | | | Supreme Court has deemed a previous ruling of the |
| determination could be made to an educational facility, | | | | court to be incorrect, and in doing so, it changed an |
| as preceded in Sweatt v. Painter, Warren reasoned | | | | entire way of life in the United States. The concept |
| that Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas | | | | that "separate but equal" facilities were inherently |
| was clearly a case to overturn Plessey v. Ferguson | | | | unequal in the eyes of the Constitution allowed Chief |
| entirely. Through the ideology that one cannot | | | | Justice Warren to rule in favor of Brown, and in doing |
| determine the equality of an educational facility, | | | | so, overturned the political policy of segregation in the |
| whether graduate, as confronted in Sweatt v. Painter, | | | | south. Warren also cited a variety of legal precedents, |
| or elementary, as addressed in the case Brown v. | | | | including the case of Sweatt v. Painter, which |
| Board of Education, the case of Plessey v. Ferguson, | | | | addressed the issue of segregation in graduate |
| which has allowed segregation in schools for over half | | | | education, and deemed that the unquantifiable nature |
| a century, was overturned, and with it, an entire way | | | | of equal facilities rendered the policy unconstitutional. |
| of life in many of the southern states. | | | | The implementation of the ruling, however, was much |
| Though the second Brown case demanded that all | | | | less revolutionary than the ruling itself, and the vague |
| schools comply with the court's decision "with all | | | | language it contained allowed many school districts to |
| deliberate speed", many localities chose to ignore this | | | | resist the ruling for years after it was created. This |
| mandate for many years following the verdict. Many | | | | was one of the key errors of the Warren court in the |
| argue that the Supreme Court was entirely too vague | | | | case of Brown. Through an analysis of this case, one |
| in its language as it demanded desegregation of all | | | | can easily see its influential nature on not only |
| schools in the United States, and that the phrase, "with | | | | American society at the time, but American history for |
| all deliberate speed" failed to set a manageable | | | | all times. |