Brown V. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution

by Leland B. Ware and Raymond T. Diamond

Book Overview

Before 1954, both law and custom mandated strict racial segregation throughout much of the nation. That began to change with Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark decision that overturned the pernicious "separate but equal" doctrine. In declaring that legally mandated school segregation was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court played a critical role in helping to dismantle America's own version of apartheid, Jim Crow.

This new study of Brown--the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0700612890
• ISBN13: 9780700612895
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Court cases leading up to Brown v. Board of Education

Read this for graduate American history course. This book begins with a brief look at African-American history from slavery to Plessy v. Ferguson and Jim Crow. This history is important to understanding the events that led up to the infamous Brown v. Board of Education case. The authors explain throughout the book not only what the black population endured but also how these events in our nation's history led those involved in the Brown case to feel they finally had a chance at achieving what they had been fighting for. Although this case is known for forever altering American race relations, there were other lesser known and often forgotten cases which paved the way for the Brown decision. Before Mr. Marshall took Harry Brigg's case, Sarah Roberts, Dred Scott, Adolfus Plessy, and Lloyd Gaines had already used the courts to address the issues of segregation and racial prejudices. Brown dealt with a caste system that dated back to antebellum America. The caste system was developed when the Supreme Court played a significant role in disassembling federal protection for blacks and allowing a system of caste-like restrictions that were to be reestablished and strengthened after Reconstruction (6). Even though the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and allowed Negroes to declare their citizenship, it only heightened the investigation for ways to clearly characterize the inferior status for African Americans. In 1846 a black printer, Benjamin Roberts, wanted to enroll his five year old daughter,Sarah, in the nearby primary school. However, she was cast out because the school closest closest to her home was an all white school. Benjamin Roberts was required to enroll his daughter in the primary school for colored children, which was farther away. Roberts chose to file suit against the city of Boston on behalf of his daughter (15). The case was tried in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and was presided overby Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, who decided against Roberts,believing that the institution is unfair; however, he abandoned the idea of instantaneous abolition anyway (16). In 1857, the issue of Negro citizenship was under attack in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. It was obvious that the South was against the idea that blacks (free or otherwise) were citizens of the different states and of the United States. Dred Scott wanted the court to decide whether they were going to agree with the North or the South asto whether or not blacks should be considered citizens. Unfortunately, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney chose the southern view (22). Before Brown v. Board of Education there was Jim Crow which developed a system of rigid separation between blacks and whites in regards to everything (Le. public restrooms, water fountains, separate seating on public accommodations, etc.) (28). This system became state-mandated segregation of which the highest court approved (29). At the same time the Supreme Court handed down it decision in Plessy v

Putting a landmark case in context

This book looks at the case of Brown vs. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in schools 50 years ago this month. The actual case only takes up several chapters in the middle of the book. What is important is that the book tries to put the case in terms of legal, and societal, context. Chapters leading up speak about the legal challenges to segregation that appeared in the 50 prior years since Plessy v. Ferguson enshrined the doctrine of "separate but equal" in our nation's laws. Because law is built upon precedence, these cases mark the stones on which the group of cases, eventually to be grouped under Brown, would stand. The authors take us inside the Supreme Court and helps analyze the decision making process, and examine the subsequent practices and pitfalls of the implementation of that decision. It is a case that even a half century later the repercussions are still felt in America. This is not a scintillating read. The focus is on the law and the legal actions leading up to and after the decision. But it is an excellent book to put this event into legal context.

Good book, but does not focus on Brown v. Board of Education

When one sees the title "Brown v. Board of Education", it immediately stirs up notions of a Supreme Court case involving desegregation of public schools in America. Robert Cottol, Raymond Diamond, and Leland Ware have given us some of that feel, but not enough in this book.The book, only 240+ pages to start with, does not even touch on the Brown case (or any of the six cases that collectively were referred to as "Brown") until page 119. The first half of the book is spent exploring the history of segregation in education and in America as a whole. I believe that this is an important topic, but not of enough importance to require half of a book that is supposed to be about this one Supreme Court case.Aside from the fact that there is little in the book that deals with the case itself (besides the history of segregation in education, there is a substantial section of the book that deals with direct ramifications of ordered desegregation and the reactions of state and local governments to this order), the book is well written. I enjoyed reading the book, but I think that I would refer readers to a broader history of the Supreme Court and interventions in race relations, such as the new Klarman book "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality" instead of this book.If, however, one is looking for a consice book that does indeed provide the story of segregation in American education, including the historic decision in 1954 that abolished that segregation, this is a great book to read and understand.