Brown V. Board of Education Simulation

There is great mistreatment of African American children in four school districts where the schools are required to be separated by race. The issue at hand is whether or not this violates the fourteenth amendment.

Brown had many arguments such as how separating races did, in fact, violate equal protection under the fourteenth amendment because legal segregation could result in low self-esteem in these students. Also, the facilities were very unequal, by being more in favor of whites. In 1954 the black schools received only 60% of the funding that they should have compared to the white schools which are much cleaner. The schools for the African American students didn't have cafeterias, gyms, or running water.

The board of education fought back by stating that segregation had been in society for hundreds of years and if they were to stop segregating it might cause tension in the population. It is said that schools with one ethnic background tend to be more successful, also integrated schools already exist and that are called magnet schools so why mess up the way that everything is set up now. It is also stated that if schooling is provided to everybody then what is the problem.

In the end, the court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional. This struck down the ruling of Plessy V. Ferguson, "separate but equal". After this case, it is known as "separate is not equal".