Post for School Law

Kelly Lyn Wilson

IRAC
on
Brown v. Board of Education
1954. 347 U.S. 843
Issues
Does the segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprive the minority
children of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment? (
Brown v. Board of
Education
, Oyez)
Rules
Equal protection under the law.
Analysis/Application
What it comes down to is that even if all tangible things are equal in segregated schools (like
facilities, teacher salaries, classes, etc.), there are intangible things that will be inherently unequal if
students are segregated by race. An example of this comes from
McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents
where the ruling found that an African-American student should be admitted to a previously
Caucasian institution so that he would have an equal education ". . . to study, to engage in
discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession, (p.
494). This ability to have varied discourse was the intangible factor that was being restricted.
However, there are other arguments that while not supporting segregation, do not necessarily
support purposeful desegregation. I begin with a quote from Howard Fuller, I believe that you can
never be committed to an arrangement, but you have to be committed to purpose, (2010, p. 2). I
think there are some systems and persons trying to make change and they get stuck on the
arrangements
and the
purpose
gets lost. I think this quote from Hill & Maas (2015) speaks to Fullers

point, Families should be able to pick the school in which their child is most likely to graduate and
thrive, and schools need to clearly communicate to parents and oversight authorities what their
particular model can and cannot do.
I interpret that as families understanding the arrangement that a school is using to get to the
purpose, and being able to understand if that arrangement will be good for their child. Back to
Fuller, I also empathize with his thoughts that parts of desegregation and the wording of
Brown v.


Post for School Law
Kelly Lyn Wilson

Board of Education
suggest that the only hope for black students to get a good education was to be
rescued from their inferior institutions and pathologies and placed in integrated schools, (Fuller,

2004). I am not advocating for segregated schools, in no way, but I am for finding the best ways to
help students graduate and be prepared for college and/or a vocation; there is no reason that an
all-black community school should not be able to do that as well as an all-white community school.
So again, it is not the arrangement that matters, it is the purpose.
Conclusion
What the 14th Amendment states is that we can not create laws that force an arrangement that
subverts the purpose of our nation, which is to give people equal access to have life, liberty and
property. Plessy (1896) and his lawyer, Tourqee, argued that by forcing him to sit in certain train
cars, he was not given equal access; however the court ruled that separate but equal was not
unconstitutional. Though the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision of separate but equal is
inherently unequal was in the context of the public education, it opened the floodgates for
removing barriers in many systems. What my hope is that persons or systems will continue to think
of what the big picture is and through what pathways it can be accomplished, without denying the
rights of anyone to pursue whatever path they wish to choose.
Sources:
Brown V. Board of Education
.
1954. 347 U.S. 843
Brown V. Board of Education.
(I). The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. 16 April
2014. <
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1952/1952_1/
>.
Fuller, H. (2004).
The Struggle Continues
. Education Next, 4(4).

Fuller, H. (2010).
Education, Choice, and Chang
e. Unboxed, 2010(6).
Hill., P., Maas., T. (2015)
Charter High Schools and the Backfill Debate.Retrieved April 27, 2015 from
http://www.crpe.org/thelens/charter-high-schools-and-backfill-debate
Plessy V. Ferguson
.
1896. 163 U.S. 537


Post for School Law
Kelly Lyn Wilson

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents

. 1950 .
339 U.S. 637