Brown v. Board of Education
A Brief History with DocumentsSecond Edition ©2020
This new edition of Brown v. Board of Education addresses the origins, development, meanings, and consequences of the 1954 Supreme Court decision to end Jim Crow segregation. Using legal documents to frame the debates surrounding the case, Waldo Martin presents Brown v. Board of Educati...
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This new edition of Brown v. Board of Education addresses the origins, development, meanings, and consequences of the 1954 Supreme Court decision to end Jim Crow segregation. Using legal documents to frame the debates surrounding the case, Waldo Martin presents Brown v. Board of Education as an event, a symbol, and a key marker in the black liberation struggle. This new edition strikes a balance between political and social history, not only highlighting the constitutional aspects of the decision but also the social context and impact of the decision for African Americans. With an updated introductory essay and six new documents, several of them by African American authors, the second edition of the text brings this case into the larger context of African American history and civil rights and explores its long-term effects. New questions for consideration, as well as an updated chronology and bibliography, supplement the sources. Available in print and e-book formats.
“Waldo Martin’s book ― well crafted and highly readable ― illustrates the vital importance of history to current issues and problems. Anyone interested in specific matters related to race, law, and social change over time as well as to the discourse of the citizenry in regard to racial justice will find Martin’s work informative, provocative, and engaging."
― Genna Rae McNeil, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"This is a very fine book. The introduction is excellent. It was helpful to me in honing my own thinking about the Brown case and should be invaluable to students at all levels. I was particularly impressed with the way in which Martin analyzes the historical context and the long-term implications of the NAACP’s integrationist approach."
― Lynn Dumenil, Occidental College
"The concepts announced in the introduction are presented in a cogent manner that would allow readers with little previous knowledge of the subject to comprehend the fundamental issues associated with the legal battles to democratize public schooling and other institutions in the United States."
― Thelma Foote, University of California, Irvine
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
PART ONE. Introduction: Shades of Brown: Black Freedom, White Supremacy, and the Law
Historical Backdrop: The Constitution, the Law, and Fighting Jim Crow
The Evolution of the NAACP Legal Campaign Against Jim Crow
The NAACP’s Legal Strategy Challenged
The Growing Anti-Racist Offensive: An American Dilemma Confronts World War II
Continuity and Change in the Legal Struggle: Equality, Equalization, and Direct Attack
Politics, Social Change, and Decision-Making within the Supreme Court: The Crafting of Brown
The Brown Decision: Immediate Responses and Immediate Consequences
PART TWO. The Documents
1. Roberts v. City of Boston (1849)
1. A Petition on Behalf of Black Inclusion in the Boston Common Schools, October 17, 1787
2. Maria W. Stewart, A Black Teacher’s Travail, 1850s
3. Charles Sumner, Brief for Public School Integration, 1849
4. Massachusetts Chief Justice Lemuel Chaw, Opinion of the Court in Roberts v. City of Boston, 1849
5. Chief Justice Robert Taney, Majority Decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857
2. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
6. Henry McNeal Turner, "Civil Rights: The Outrage of the Supreme Court of the United States upon the Black Man," 1889
7. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, "The Case Stated," 1895
8. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "We Wear the Mask," 1895
9. Justice Henry Brown, Majority Opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
10. Justice John Marshall Harlan, Dissenting Opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
3. Sweatt v. Painter (1950) and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
11. W. E. B. Du Bois, "Segregation," Editorial in The Crisis, November 1910
12. Claude McKay, "If We Must Die," 1919
13. Langston Hughes, "I, Too," 1926
14. W. E. B. Du Bois, "Does the Negro Need Separate Schools?" 1935
15. Margaret Walker, "For My People," 1937, 1942
16. The Petitioner’s Brief in Sweatt v. Painter, 1950
17. Chief Justice Fred Vinson, Opinion of the Court in Sweatt v. Painter, 1950
18. Chief Justice Fred Vinson, Opinion of the Court in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, 1950
4. Brown v. Board of Education (1952-55)
The Lower Court Round: Preliminary Deliberations
19. Judge John J. Parker, Decision in Briggs v. Elliott, 1951
20. Judge J. Waties Waring, Dissent in Briggs v. Elliott, 1951
The Supreme Court Rounds: The Making of Brown I and Brown II
Round One: Setting the Stage
21. Appellants’ Brief, 1952
22. "The Effects of Segregation and the Consequences of Desegregation: A Social Science Statement," Appendix to Appellants’ Brief
23. Appellees’ Brief, 1952
Round Two: Reargument on Original Intent and Possible Relief
24. The Supreme Court’s Order: The Questions, 1953
25. Appellants’ Brief, 1953
26. Appellees’ Brief, 1953
27. Federal Friend-of-the-Court Brief, 1953
28. Chief Justice Earl Warren, Opinion of the Court in Brown v. Board of Education, May 17, 1954
Round Three: Reargument on Remedy – Immediate or Gradual?
29. Appellants’ Brief, 1954
30. Appellees’ Brief, 1954
31. Appellants’ Reply Brief, 1954
32. Chief Justice Earl Warren, Ruling on Relief, May 31, 1955
5. Popular Response to Brown
Newspaper Editorials
33. "All God’s Chillun," Times (New York), May 18, 1954
34. The Decision of A Century, Daily World (Atlanta), May 18, 1954
35. Will Stun Communists, Courier (Pittsburgh), May 18, 1954
36. End of Dual Society, Defender (Chicago), May 18, 1954
37. Emancipation, Post and Times Herald (Washington, D.C.), May 18, 1954
38. The Supreme Court Has Given Us Time, Constitution (Atlanta), May 18, 1954
39. Bloodstains on White Marble Steps, Daily News (Jackson, Miss.), May 18, 1954
40. Equality Redefined, Herald (Boston), May 18, 1954
41. The Segregation Decision, Times (Los Angeles), May 19, 1954
42. Supreme Court Decision Opens Way For "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," Campus Echo, North Carolina College at Durham, May 25, 1954
43. Equal Education For All, Teachers College Newsletter, Elizabeth City State Teachers College, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, December 1954
44. "Violates" Way of Life, Cavalier Daily, University of Virginia, May 18, 1954
45. Adjustment Held Difficult, Mississippian, University of Mississippi, May 18, 1954
Letters to Editors
46. Ruling on Schools Hailed, Times (New York), May 31, 1954
47. Court Order Can’t Make Races Mix, Sentinel (Orlando), August 11, 1955
Political Cartoons
48. Chronicle (San Francisco), May 18, 1954
49. Democrat (Arkansas), May 22, 1954
50. Afro-American (Richmond), May 22, 1954
51. Defender (Chicago), June 12, 1954
White Backlash
52. The Southern Manifesto, March 12, 1956
Epilogue: The Legacy of Brown
APPENDIXES
Chronology of Events Related to Brown v. Board of Education (1793-2016)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index
Authors
Waldo Martin
Waldo E. Martin, Jr. is the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of American History and Citizenship at the University of California, Berkeley. His principal areas of research and writing are African American cultural and intellectual history. He co-authored Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (2013) with Joshua Bloom; Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans with Documents (2013) with Deborah Gray White and Mia Bay; and Civil Rights in the United States: An Encyclopedia (Macmillan, 2000) with Patricia A. Sullivan. He is also the author of No Coward Soldiers: Black Cultural Politics in Postwar America (2005), Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents (2020), and The Mind of Frederick Douglass (1985). Martin has published numerous articles and lectured widely on a variety of topics in modern American and African American history and culture. His current book project is A Change is Gonna Come, a cultural analysis of the modern African American Freedom Struggle, forthcoming in 2020. Be Real Black for Me, an anthology of his essays, is forthcoming in 2021.
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