Happy Birthday Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, et al.

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Brown, et. Al v. Board of Topeka, Kansas, et al. Turns 70 this Year

Brown’s holding

Seventy years ago, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued, its landmark Supreme Court decision in the case, Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, et al. You can read the decision here. While the practical effects of Brown would not be actually felt until may years after this decision, it still represents a hallmark of Civil Rights. It was instrumental more in what is symbolized for the law of this nation, than what it actually accomplished legally. In fact, since Brown there have been those that have questioned is holding. Nevertheless the Brown decision served as a springboard for the Modern Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’. The Court declared racial segregation in public education unconstitutional. This declaration, was important in trying to undo the effects of Jim Crow segregation and by extension the remaining vestiges of of slavery.

Brown’s significance today

But Brown doesn’t just have historical significance. It has significance today. It has significance. Brown is proof of the long struggle for Civil Rights in this country, and one of the greatest victories of the movement. But the lesson of Brown for today, is that it was the result of a multiple decades long legal campaign that the NAACP began, and then the NAACP-LDF continued until it came to fruition. For current Civil Rights Activists and Attorneys, Brown is proof that in many ways, a civil rights struggle is a marathon rather than a sprint. Thus, activists and attorneys must be in for the long haul, and gear up for long fights.

Brown’s relationship to Plessy

Speaking of long fights, one of the ironic parts of Brown, is that it attempted to undo was Plessy v. Ferguson was was decided exactly one day after Brown was decided, but 58 years prior to Brown, on May 18, 1896. In Plessy, the Supreme Court decided that that state-mandated segregation on rail cars, was not unconstitutional. You can read the Plessy decision here. 58 years later in Brown that same Supreme Court, held that racial segregation in public education was unconstitutional. Thus, it is possible to reverse the effects of an unjust law, or decision, even if it takes time.

Brown’s signal to the nation and the world

The Significance of the Brown Case to the nation and the world, was that the U.S. Supreme Court, one of the three branches of federal power had declared that segregation in public schools was not constitutional. The Supreme Court, the very set of law in the U.S. had attempted to adjust the mistake it made earlier by declaring that separate but equal was ok. Accordingly, historians regard 1954 as the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement, or the heroic period of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Lawyers who led the fight to result in Brown

One cannot separate the holding in Brown from the Lawyers that were the architects of the multi-year, or multi-decade legal strategy that led to Brown. Charles Hamilton Houston, was the key forerunner of the legal strategy, who had been the Dean of Howard Law School, and mentor to Thurgood Marshall, and so many others from Howard Law School. Of course, Thurgood Marshall the lawyer who argued the Brown case before the U.S. Supreme Court, who eventually became Solicitor General and then the first African American Justice on the U. S. Supreme Court. You can find more information on Justice Marshall here. Others included Constance Baker Motley, Spottswood Robinson, William Coleman, and Robert Carter, among others.

Example for lawyers today

The Lawyers behind the Brown case, provide a great lesson for lawyers today, including using a long-term legal strategy. In addition, they had legal teams, full of lawyers, sociologists, historians, assistants, and others, to assist them along the way. In addition, the lawyers provided a legal view of the Constitution for current and future Civil Rights Lawyers, to craft creative legal arguments and theories to advance the causes of their people.

The Brown case should be studied in law schools, undergraduate schools, high schools, and elementary schools. Indeed the case could likely be its own legal seminar for how powerful and significant it is to the American law, education, African American history, civil rights, and society as a whole.

As we celebrate 70 years of Brown, Civil Rights Attorneys, Civil Rights Activists, and Social Entrepreneurs, should refocus our efforts on pursuing civil rights and social justice in the spirit of the Brown case, and use it as a model for current and future civil rights struggles.

Continuing in the Struggle

Yours in Civil Rights

Brian K. Leonard