| Briggs v.
Elliott |
| |
The series of events that our foreparents started became
the legal case of Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al. This was the first
case to reach the United States Supreme Court that challenged the
constitutionality of segregated educational facilities. Ultimately,
Briggs v. Elliott became one of five cases argued before the Supreme
Court as Brown et al v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County,
KS, et al. Briggs v. Elliott is of particular historical importance
because it was the case that caused the NAACP to redirect its approach
from suing for “separate but equal” facilities to challenging
segregation as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution. The Supreme Court decision in favor of the plaintiffs
in the five cases marked the beginning of a new era of civil rights
and social awareness in the United States. It set the stage for the
practice of equal opportunities for all persons – whether racial
or ethnic minorities, women, disabled persons, senior citizens or
disease victims. Yet few people have ever heard of Briggs v. Elliott.
Copyright © 2002 by J. A. De Laine, Jr. |
| Gebhart v.
Belton (Bulah) |
| |
There were two separate cases in Delaware, but the issues
were the same. Black families were frustrated with the inequitable
conditions in schools reserved for African-American children. Belton
v. Gebhart was brought by parents in Claymont, who were forced to
send their children to a run-down segregated high school in Wilmington
rather than a school in the community. Bulah v. Gebhart was brought
by Sarah Bulah, a parent who had made several attempts to convince
the Delaware Department of Public Instruction to provide bus transportation
for black children in the town of Hockessin. Particularly galling
was the fact that a bus for white children passed her house twice
a day, but would not pick up her daughter.
The parents sought representation from Louis Redding, a local lawyer
who was the state’s first black attorney. He suggested that
they petition their all-white neighborhood schools on behalf of
their children. The children were denied admission and in 1951,
the cases Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart were filed. At
the state’s request the cases were heard at the Delaware Court
of Chancery rather than the U.S. District Court. Jack Greenberg
from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. assisted
Redding with the case.
In a groundbreaking decision, the Chancellor ruled that the plaintiffs
were being denied equal protection of the law and ordered that the
eleven children involved be immediately admitted to the white school.
The board of education, however, appealed the decision. Delaware
was the only case of the five that achieved relief for the plaintiffs
at the state level. The decision did not strike down Delaware’s
segregation law.
http://www.nps.gov/brvb/pages/belton.htm
|
| Bolling
v. Sharpe |
| |
In 1947, Gardner Bishop and the Consolidated Parents
Group, Inc. began a crusade to end segregated schooling in Washington,
D.C. At the beginning of the school term in 1950, Bishop attempted
to get eleven young African-American students admitted to the newly
completed John Philip Sousa Junior High School. They were turned away,
although the school had several empty classrooms. Charles Hamilton
Houston, the special counsel to the NAACP, provided legal representation
for the group.
James Nabrit, Jr. a colleague from Howard University, replaced
Houston when he became ill. Nabrit did not present evidence that
schools the plaintiffs attended were inferior to the facilities
for white students. He felt the sole issue was that of segregation
itself. It was a risky position. The U.S. District court dismissed
the case on the basis of a recent ruling by the Court of Appeals
in Carr v. Corning that segregated schools were constitutional in
the District of Columbia. Nabrit filed an appeal and was awaiting
a hearing when the Supreme Court sent word that it was interested
in considering the case along with the other four segregation cases
already pending. The U.S. Supreme Court rendered a separate opinion
on Bolling v. Sharpe because the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
was not applicable in the District of Columbia.
http://www.nps.gov/brvb/pages/bolling.htm
|
| Brown
v. Board of Education of Topeka |
| |
This case was initiated by members of the local NAACP
chapter in Topeka, Kansas. Thirteen parents volunteered to participate.
In the summer of 1950, they took their children to schools in their
neighborhoods and attempted to enroll them for the upcoming school
year. All were refused admission. The children were forced to attend
one of the four schools in the city for African Americans. For most
this involved traveling some distance from their homes. These parents
filed suit against the Topeka Board of Education on behalf of their
twenty children. Oliver Brown, a minister, was the first parent listed
in the suit, so the case came to be named after him. Three local lawyers,
Charles Bledsoe, Charles Scott and John Scott, were assisted by Robert
Carter and Jack Greenberg of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, Inc.
The case was filed in February 1951. The U.S. District Court ruled
against the plaintiffs, but placed in the record its acceptance
of the psychological evidence that African-American children were
adversely affected by segregation. These findings later were quoted
by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1954 opinion.
http://www.nps.gov/brvb/pages/brown.htm
|
| Davis v.
County School Board of Prince Edward County |
| |
In April 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns took action.
She got an accomplice to phone the school's principal and ask him
to go to the bus terminal on the pretext of picking up two truants.
While he was gone, she convinced the students to go on strike the
following day to demand a better school. A NAACP organizer convinced
the parents of the striking students that the strike would succeed
only if the students attacked segregation head-on, through the courts.
In 1953, the NAACP lost Davis v. The County School Board of Prince
Edward County in a federal district court but won the suit a year
later in the Supreme Court through Brown v. Board of Education.
The Commonwealth of Virginia led the "massive
resistance" movement against the Supreme Court decision by
threatening to close its public schools. The schools in Prince Edward
County were closed from 1959 to 1964, making it the only county
in the nation to close its public schools for an extended period
to avoid desegregation.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/travel/civilrights/v1.htm
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