Brown V Topeka Case

Question 1

What happened in 1952?

Answer 1

NAACP take 5 desegregation cases to the supreme court.

Question 2

What did the NAACP argue to the judge?

Answer 2

Separate was NOT equal. Against the 14th Amendment.

Question 3

NAACP

Answer 3

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Question 4

What happened in December 1952 during the case?

Answer 4

Supreme Court had not yet made a decision. Earl Warren replaces pro-segregation judge, as Chief Justice.

Question 5

What happened in 1954 during the case?

Answer 5

2 years on from the start of the case the supreme court ruled that ‘seperate but equal’ had no place in education.

Question 6

What happened in may 1955 during the case?

Answer 6

Supreme Court called for desegregation ‘with all deliberate speed’

Question 7

Evidence of the short-term success of Brown

Answer 7

-Plessy was reversed
-Led to many further Legal victories
-Southern border states desegregated schools

Question 8

Evidence that Brown was unsuccessful

Answer 8

-Southern Manifesto rejected the Brown decision.
-Threats & violence to black children that attempted to integrate into schools.
-Some southern Governors pledged to keep segregation.
-White Citizens’ Council set up in Mississippi (aimed to preserve segregation and used violence/intimidation).
-KKK membership grew
-White parent groups protested outside schools

Question 9

Long-terms effects of the Brown vs Topeka ruling

Answer 9

-Black students faced hostility in integrated schools (many had been better off at the black school).

-More awareness of Civil Rights BUT membership of NAACP fell.

-White flight – many whites moved away from areas with a large black population, creating a new kind of segregation.

-Led to more desegregation legislation
Desegregation of schools was slow in some places.

-Some black teachers lost their jobs, others faced difficulty in new integrated schools