Mock Trial #3 Brown v. The Board of Education
The case of Brown v. The Board was a series of cases around Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington D.C. regarding the integration of black students in schools created for white students. As per the legal precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson, which determined that as long as the buildings provided equal service, there was no claim to be made under the 14th amendment's equal protection clause. In this case, since both schools provide equal service many people, mainly white southerners, argued that there was no reason to integrate the schools and risk decreasing the prestige of their institutions.
I examined the economic debates of the Board of Education's side and found that there were a lot of concerns regarding increased expenses and lessened individual time with teachers. According to infoplease.com, "because some federal funds for Native American only applied at the nonwhite schools, some programs for minority children were actually better than those offered at the schools for whites". It was arguments like these that backed the anti-integration argument. Money worries like the impending need for more teachers, desks, supplies, and facilities were also topics of concern for the anti-integration backers. I found it quite interesting that the side of the argument that typically had more money and higher incomes were the ones being so frugal with their expenses. In my opinion, they were probably just being frugal because they didn't want to "waste" their money on the education of black students.
Since the basis of the Board of Education's argument was based on the precedent case, Plessy v. Ferguson, many people believed that this case would be an easy win for the side of anti-integration because of the similar nature of the two cases, however, this was not the case. The Supreme Court decided to dismantle Plessy by stating that segregation in schools does in fact violate people's first amendment rights under the equal protection clause (uscourts.gov). Justice John Marshal Harlan stated, "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens" (uscourts.gov). Justice Earl Warren, former Governor of California stated in the decision of the Supreme Court, "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal". Justices John Harlan and Earl Warren were so far ahead of their time and we are lucky to be able to see that in retrospect. Unfortunately, these opinions were still heard too late in history but fortunately, these influential justices left a lasting mark on the history of the Supreme Court.