Trials
Ms. Shen
Name: _________________________________
The Brown v. Board of Education ruling
Directions: Examine the painting below and answer the following questions to the best of your ability in the space provided.
1. What do you think is taking place in this painting?
2. Where do you think the young girl is going? How can you tell?
3. Who do you think the men in the painting are? What relationship do you think they have to the girl?
4. What was going on in the U.S. in that time and place? How might this relate to the painting?
5. Why do you think the artist called the painting, The Problem We All Live With?
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
During the 1880s and 1890s, southern states, where 90% of African Americans lived, created laws designed to ensure white
supremacy and control. These included segregation laws, which mandated separate public accommodations for the races.
On June 7, 1892, a biracial man named Homer Plessy was removed by force from the "For Whites" car of the East Louisiana
Railroad and jailed. His arrest was part of a planned action to challenge the Constitutionality of the state’s Separate Car Act.
According to the Act, Plessy was required to sit in a car designated for "colored" persons, although, as he asserted, he was
seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth Negro.
Plessy took his case to court, arguing that the Louisiana Separate Car Act violated the 13th and 14th Amendments and was thus
unconstitutional -- that separating the races implied inferiority rather than equality. New Orleans trial judge John H. Ferguson
ruled against Plessy, affirming that Louisiana could choose to impose the Separate Car Act on trains that operated within the
state. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld Ferguson's decision on appeal. Plessy then appealed to the United States’ Supreme
Court. On May 18, 1896, the Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that that separate train cars did not violate equal protection
provided by the 14th Amendment, as long as the separate accommodations were equal.
What do YOU think “separate but equal” should mean? How would you define it?
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What does the COURT meant when they talk about “separate but equal” facilities? What does it mean to have
“separate but equal” facilities?
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The Plessy v. Ferguson decision gave state and local governments in the South and in other states the right to legally segregate the
races in most areas of public life, including transportation, public accommodations, and public schools.
Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)
Background on the case:
In Topeka, Kansas in the 1950s, schools were segregated by race. Each day,
_______________________ and her sister had to walk through a dangerous
railroad switchyard to get to the bus stop for the ride to their all-black elementary
school. There was a school closer to the Brown's house, but it was only for white
students. Linda Brown and her family believed that the segregated school system
violated the ______ Amendment and took their case to court. The federal district
court decided that although segregation in public education was harmful to black
children, because the all-black schools and all-white schools had similar buildings,
transportation, curricula, and teachers, the segregation was legal. Remember,
thanks to the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, “separate but equal” facilities were legal.
The Browns appealed their case to Supreme Court stating that even if the facilities were similar, segregated schools could
never be equal to one another. Why do you think that they make this claim? What is it about segregated schools that
can by their nature never be equal?
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In 1954, ______ states and Washington D.C. operated segregated school systems by law.
The case:
In presenting their case before the Court in Brown v. Board of Education, the ________________________________________
______________________________________________________________ (NAACP) lawyers made two points:
1. First, they argued that the huge difference between white and black schools (in both funding and actual
facilities/buildings) was overwhelming evidence that black children were denied equal educational opportunities and
therefore was a violation of the ______ amendment, which promises “equal protection of the laws” to all citizens.
2. Second, the lawyers said that segregation had a negative psychological effect on black students and was therefore
harming the entire educational system. To support this belief, the lawyers used the work of two social psychologists –
Professor Kenneth Clark and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark. During the 1940s, the Clarks designed a test to study the
psychological effects of segregation on black children. The NAACP believed that Clark’s findings showed that
segregation damaged the personality development of black children. They hired Clark to provide expert testimony in
the case.
The “Dolls Test”
Clark used a doll test to show how ________________________ had negatively impacted the personality and psychological
development of black children.
In the "doll test," psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark used four plastic, diaper-clad
dolls, identical except for color. They showed the dolls to black children between the ages
of three and seven and asked them questions to determine racial perception and
preference. Almost all of the children easily identified the race of the dolls. But, when
asked which they preferred, which they wanted to play with, which was the “nice doll,” the
majority chose the white doll and said positive things about it. The majority thought the
brown doll looked bad.
The Clarks also gave the children outline drawings of a boy and girl and asked them to
color the figures the same color as themselves. Many of the children with dark
complexions colored the figures with a white or yellow crayon.
Excerpted below is a portion of Professor Clark’s testimony before the Court. In it, he describes the tests and his conclusion in response to
questioning by Robert Carter of the NAACP:
Q. Well, as a result of your tests, what conclusions have you reached, Mr. Clark, with respect to the infant plaintiffs involved in
this case?
A. The conclusion which I was forced to reach was that these children…, like other human beings who are subjected to an
obviously inferior status in the society in which they live, have been definitely harmed in the development of their
personalities; that the signs of instability in their personalities are clear, and I think that every psychologist would accept and
interpret these signs as such.
Q. Is that the type of injury which in your opinion would be enduring or lasting?
A. I think it is the kind of injury which would be as enduring or lasting as the situation endured, changing only in its form and
in the way it manifests itself.
What is Professor Clark saying about the psychological damage being done to black children?
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Are the effects permanent? YES / NO
Why? _______________________________________________________________
How is his testimony important to this case?
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The ruling:
The court ruled unanimously (9-to-0) that segregation on the basis of race “generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in
the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.”
The Court ruled that separate facilities are inherently unequal. Why did the Supreme Court agree that schools can’t be
separate AND equal? How does the separation lead to inequality?
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One small problem…Brown was a huge victory yet it set no timeline or deadline by which schools must begin to desegregate.
As a result, the NAACP went back to the courts for clarification. In the second ruling, the Court called on them to
desegregate “with all deliberate speed.” MEANING WHAT? _______________________________________________
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Opposition to Brown v. Board: Following the Brown decision, _______% of white southerners polled expressed that they
opposed integration.
President Eisenhower also opposed the ruling, saying “you cannot change the minds of men with laws and decisions.” The
South saw this as proof that he wouldn’t intervene to enforce the Brown ruling. However, in reality, if state violated the law,
the president must step in.
Fifty Years After Brown: Are We Living the Dream?
DIRECTIONS: Over fifty years after the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision, how successful do you think U.S.
schools have been in achieving integration? Read the following statements and indicate whether you think the statement is
true or false by placing a T for true or an F for false on the line before each statement.
_____ 1. The most segregated group in the nation’s public schools is white students.
_____ 2. Due to the history of slavery and segregation in the South, southern states are the most segregated states for black
students.
_____ 3. The majority of segregated schools with mostly students of color face conditions of poverty.
_____ 4. Desegregation efforts in U.S. schools have not worked and have only led to increased racial separation.
_____ 5. Research has shown that desegregation has a positive impact on student achievement.
The story behind the painting
In the spring of 1960, Ruby Bridges was one of several African-Americans in New
Orleans to take a test to determine which children would be the first to attend integrated
schools. Six students were chosen; of these six, two decided to stay in their original
schools, three were assigned to McDonogh Elementary School, and only Bridges was
assigned to William Frantz. Her father initially was reluctant, but her mother felt strongly
that the move was needed not only to give her own daughter a better education, but to
"take this step forward ... for all African-American children."
The court-ordered first day of integrated schools in New Orleans, November 14,
1960, was captured by Norman Rockwell in the painting The Problem We All Live With. As
Bridges describes it, "Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I
actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the
school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans
at Mardi Gras." Former Marshall Charles Burks later recalled, "She showed a lot of
courage. She never cried. She didn't whimper. She just marched along like a little
soldier, and we're all very proud of her."
As soon as Bridges got into the school, white parents went in and brought
their own children out; all but one of the white teachers also refused to teach while a
black child was enrolled. Only Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, was
willing to teach Bridges, and for over a year Mrs. Henry taught her alone, "as if she
were teaching a whole class." That first day, Bridges and her adult companions spent
the entire day in the principal's office; the chaos of the school prevented their
moving to the classroom until the second day. Every morning, as Bridges walked to
school, one woman would threaten to poison her, because of this, the marshalls
overseeing her only allowed Ruby to eat food that she brought from home. Another woman at the school put a black baby
doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges said "scared me more than the nasty
things people screamed at us." At her mother's suggestion, Bridges began to pray on the way to school, which she found
provided protection from the comments yelled at her on the daily walks.
Child psychiatrist Robert Coles volunteered to provide counseling to Bridges during her first year at Frantz. He met
with her weekly in the Bridges home.
The Bridges family suffered for their decision to send her to William Frantz Elementary: her father lost his job, and
her grandparents, who were sharecroppers in Mississippi, were turned off their land. She has noted that many others in the
community both black and white showed support in a variety of ways. Some white families continued to send their children to
Frantz despite the protests, a neighbor provided her father with a new job, and local people babysat, watched the house as
protectors, and walked behind the federal marshals' car on the trips to school.