Abstract
The paper discusses how the 1954 Supreme Court Case of "Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas" was a landmark which changed the course of race relations in the U.S. by declaring the doctrine of "separate but equal" to be unconstitutional. The paper explains that it led to the desegregation of American education and a series of later federal actions, laws and constitutional amendments. The paper also notes that indirectly it set in motion the political careers of Thurgood Marshall (Supreme Court justice) and Barack Obama (Senator and Presidential candidate.)

From the Paper
"In 1954 Stanley (Ann) Dunham was a sixth grader "growing up in the `flatlands of Kansas.'" "Curious," "precocious" and later described by friends as fiercely "independent," she was undoubtedly aware of events taking place across the state in Topeka and in Washington D.C. where Thurgood Marshall, was winning the most important Civil Rights Case of the 20th Century - "Brown v. The Board of Education" of Topeka, Kansas. In just over a dozen years, Marshall would become the first person of color to serve on the United States Supreme Court, a constitutional amendment would ban the poll tax, important voting rights and civil rights..."

Tags:brown, court, racism

From the Paper
"This study will discuss the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954) with regard to its impact on public education, as well as its effect on old laws and similar cases in other areas. This case will also be placed into its historical context, and the judicial decision handed down will be evaluated.

This school desegregation case is justifiably famous for ending segregation practices which had been prevalent in the South and other areas since the days of Reconstruction, during which the South saw the return of "white man's government" and the passage of state laws not unlike the "Black Codes" adopted right after the Civil War to "keep the Negro in his place." Under criminal penalties, these state laws required the segregation of the white and Negro races in public and semi-public places, including ... "

Abstract
This paper discusses the history of the Supreme Court in its rullings on African-American topics. It specifically details three important cases listed below in the table of contents and their historical significance.

From the paper:

"The United States Supreme Court has made many landmark decisions over the course of its existence. The most critical of these decisions have almost always directly pertained to notions of what constitutes an American individual's liberties. Because of the history of enslavement and racism in the United States, African American lives have perhaps been more crucially impacted by these decisions than white American lives have been."

Table of Contents:
I. Introduction
II. 1857 Scott v. Sandford
III. 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson
IV. 1954 Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

Tags:black, civil, law, cases

Abstract
This paper describes the structure of the three branches of the federal government as defined by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. Starting with the upholding of the Supreme Court case "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas", the paper traces the battle for civil rights changes through the courts, the strong direction of the executive especially Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and the eventual passage of the Civil Rights Act by the legislative branch of government. The paper concludes that this act of Congress brought the civil rights issue in line with the ambitions of the judiciary and the executive branch.

From the Paper
"Upon Kennedy's assassination in 1963, his vice-president and the formerly powerful Senate, Lyndon Baines Johnson demonstrated the way in which the two branches sometimes interact. In this case, he used his influence and power to apply pressure upon representatives to pass the bill. This dynamic, in fact, is perhaps most uniquely indicative of the way the branches interact with one another. Based upon the perception that a precedent had been established by the judicial branch in its striking down of any rationale for segregation, the executive branch, channeled through very different but equally instrumental personalities in Kennedy and Johnson."

Tags:structure inequality compromise, public mandate, collective interaction

Abstract
This paper discusses the landmark "Brown v. The Board of Education" case, discussing its consequences and offering original analysis and independent opinion of the case and its outcomes.

From the Paper
"In mid- 20th century America, racial segregation was an unpleasant fact. African Americans were discriminated against in housing, education, employment and even public services. According to Massey and Denton, and as cited in Ferguson, their segregation indices rose higher than in any past era or group and by mid-20 century, their segregation indices were over ... nearly everywhere and often ... or more in the largest black communities. Although President Abraham Lincoln had freed American slaves during the Civil War with the..."

Tags:Brown v. The Board of Education, Martin Luther King, Emancipation Proclamation, civil rights, stereotype discrimination, school

Abstract
An examination into the history of U.S. constitutional law on the subject of racial segregation in public places and the different interpretations of the 14th Amendment (equal protection clause). The writer shows how this matter was clarified once and for all by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education when segregation was finally declared illegal in America.

From the Paper
"Once the Supreme Court decided that segregation definitely caused inequalities, it used the Constitution to prove that segregation was illegal. Warren admitted that the Fourteenth Amendment was vague and inconclusive, but also concluded that segregation defied the Fourteenth Amendment. Segregation in public schools did not provide equal opportunities, and students who were equally talented, but of different races, were being separated. The Chief Justice's famous closing statement summed up the reasoning used in the decision: "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal . . .. the plaintiffs . . . are . . . deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment". (Urofsky-1989)"

Tags:Plessey, Ferguson, Jim, Crow, legislation, Frederick, Vinson, Earl, Warren, Chief, Justice, legal, racism

Abstract
The paper outlines the three sections of the Fourteenth Amendment and refers to the cases of "Elk v. Wilkins" and "Plessy v. Ferguson" that represented the first stirrings of the battle against segregation in the United States. The paper looks at how the Great Depression helped black Americans and how the case of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" convinced the Supreme Court that segregation in American public schools was unconstitutional. The paper then relates that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were major social and political triumphs for African Americans. The paper concludes that today, the struggle for racial equality and justice continues not just for African Americans but also for an entire new generation of immigrants seeking life, liberty and happiness as mandated in the U.S. Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment.

From the Paper
"Some twenty years after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that discrimination against African-Americans by private persons cannot be regarded as imposing slavery or involuntary servitude against them. As a result, the U.S. Congress decided that "it could not make it a federal offense for private persons to discriminate against African-Americans." However, Congress did in fact, during the days of Reconstruction after the close of the Civil War, use its powers to prohibit "peonage, or involuntary servitude to work off a debt," but specific loopholes in this decision made the protection incomplete, something which Congress at the time did nothing to fix (Chemerinsky, 1145)."

Tags:Supreme, Court, segregation, slavery, civil, rights, equality

Abstract
Through a review of several historical legal cases, this paper examines the gradual desegregation of schools that took place in the United States. The paper highlights the fallacy of the notion of "separate but equal" and points out that educational equality is foundational to the establishment of a culture that interacts in a meaningful way and that desegregation is the only way such equality might be achieved.

From the Paper
"In the first half of the twentieth century, many major obstacles faced races of what centuries of popular history informed the American population were inferior races, and those at the bottom of the social scale were African American's the ancestors of slaves. (Allport 84-85) This was reflected almost universally in the culture, but nowhere more blatantly than in the separate but "equal" education system. (Allport 84-85) It was nowhere near equal with countless examples of inferiority throughout. The determining source of much of the fear and ignorance was and to some degree still is based on the ideas of a simple fear of the unknown or different. Through continued segregation the 'other' can still be seen as inferior as few opportunities were offered for people to have candid exposure to anything other than the dominant culture."

Tags:suspicion hatred rumors misunderstandings financial dominant salvation protection plessy v. ferguson brown v. board of education of topeka, kansas

Abstract
This paper explains that, after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that discrimination against African-Americans by private persons could be regarded as imposing slavery or involuntary servitude against them. The author describes the process that led to the creation and ratification of the 14th Amendment and outlines its powers. The author also presents Supreme Court cases and federal legislation based on this amendment, which supported anti-discrimination and the civil rights movement for not only African-Americans, but also all ethnic groups and new immigrants.

From the Paper
"However, the Great Depression could be viewed as an event which truly helped black Americans, for it became necessary for the federal government to provide many of the necessities for life to those who were either trapped in abject poverty or had lost their jobs as a result of the stock market crash of 1929. For example, the federal government and the Roosevelt Administration provided food, employment, housing, old age dependency and to some extend health benefits to all Americans, including African-Americans who had been the most hard-hit by the Great Depression which lasted from 1929 to roughly 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor."

Tags:suffragettes, brown v. board of education of topeka, dred scott, state immigrants

Abstract
This paper explains the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment and looks at how it has been interpreted, at different times in history, to sometimes further the interests of equality and, at other times, to defend the status quo, which often prevented equality among people.

From the Paper
""I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'" (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) In the fight for all men to be considered equal, the Fourteenth Amendment was an integral part. But the way in which this constitutional amendment was interpreted differed greatly in the times since it was ratified in 1868. The Fourteenth Amendment's original purpose was to create a society where all people were treated equally under the law. However, through many interpretations, the Fourteenth Amendment made it seem that equal living, education, and working conditions were things the government was responsible for providing. Depending on the time period, there have been many interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment. For the first three decades since the amendment was ratified, the Fourteenth Amendment actually slowed down the pursuit of equality, while after the 1900's, the Fourteenth Amendment was used in a wide variety of supreme court cases as a stepping stone to the racial equality we have today."

Tags:plessy, v., ferguson, railroad, car, separate, equal, brown, topeka, bus, board, education