History
Gaining knowledge and understanding the foundations of how the world around works is crucial in one’s development of essential cognitive, analytical, and critical thinking skills. Ultimately, the right to receive an education can be seen as the extension of the right to live since one cannot survive without critical skills learned during the public education process. The specified right is seen as crucial to all children living in the U.S. (Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir, Tolbert, & Campbell, 2018). However, the specified standards have not always been the case, as the Brown v. Board of Education trial showed. The court ruling for Brown v. Board of Education was a fundamental court decision since it secured not only the rights of millions of children but also the rights of the African American population, thus making a huge step toward recognizing the plight of African Americans. Exploring the history of the case, one will have to mention the fact that it was filed in 1954 in Topeka against the existing regulation that encouraged segregated education for African American students (Case, 2016). Representing a class-action lawsuit, the case resulted in acknowledging segregated public education as unconstitutional, thus becoming a seminal stage in the fight for equal rights for African American people
Question
The problem that the Brown v. Board of Education case raised was quite difficult to resolve since the reasons for the Topeka School Board to refuse African American children equality in education was a direct effect of a larger problem of denying African American people their basic human rights. Consequently, for the children of the specified demographic, fighting for the opportunity to access public schools represented a major challenge. Therefore, the outcomes of the case and the resolution to the question at hand, which had to be predetermined by the 14th Amendment. Were quite unpredictable at the time. However, the case resulted in the triumph of the plaintiff, leading to a major restructuring of the U.S. social justice system and desegregating public schools to give African American students access to equal opportunities in education.
Ruling
As explained above, the court ruling was quite difficult to predict, with massive tension coming from the sociopolitical situation on the specified time slot. However, after a long consideration of the case details, the jury found that the refusal to grant African American children accesses to equal opportunities in education and the acquisition of basic knowledge was a direct violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Thus, based on the principles set in the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court decided that children of African American descent had to be provided with access to the public education system of the U.S. (Ginsberg et al., 2018)
Commentary
In the context of the modern principles of social justice and equality, the decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court seems to be the only rational one to make. Therefore, one has to agree that the Supreme Court’s ruling was completely justified and necessary to create the climate for the further promotion of equality and the support of the Civil Rights Movement. By acknowledging that African American children had the right to attend unsegregated public schools, the Supreme Court launched the process of addressing the issues related to racial inequalities (Ginsberg et al., 2018). Although there was a long way to go to attain equality, major steps have been made.
Effects
The effects of the Brown v. Board of Education case have been tremendous for the U.S., in general, and the needs of African American children, in particular. Access to an equal education has led to the options for better financial and career-related opportunities. More importantly, the court ruling launched a series of changes in the social justice system, promoting the principles of equality and inclusion, as well as leading to a greater number of people condemning the idea of racial profiling.
Changes
Although the effects of the Brown v. Board of Education case represented a huge breakthrough in the context of the fight for equal rights, a significant amount of time was needed for American society to adjust to the court decision and the idea of unsegregated schools. While some parts of the American community accepted the change willingly, others, particularly, the South despised the idea (Case, 2016). As a result, the case contributed to the escalation of the confrontation between African American people and the proponents of the racist system (Case, 2016). Moreover, some authorities considered closing schools as a better alternative to the concept of desegregation (Case, 2016). However, the Brown v. Board of Education case still launched the process of gradual change, allowing the rest of the American community to accept the change. Arguably, the case results helped to prompt the discussion of the problem of segregation, making people question their preconceived ideas of segregated schools and leading to the slow acceptance of the principles of equality and equity, particularly, in education. Overall, the Brown v. Board of Education trial deserves the title of one of the major cases that secured the rights of African American citizens.
References
Case, S. (2016). A step toward Brown v. Board of Education: Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and her fight to end segregation by Cheryl Elizabeth Brown Wattley. Journal of Southern History, 82(1), 209-210.
Ginsberg, B., Lowi, T. J., Weir, M., Tolbert, C. J., & Campbell, A. L. We the people (12th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.