hey there and welcome back to heimler's history in this video we're going to look at yet another one of your required supreme court cases for the ap government curriculum namely brown v the board of education so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked then let's get to it so as always let's begin with the facts of the case what we call brown versus the board of education was actually a series of cases consolidated into one and all of them had to do with racial segregation in school so as the result of jim crow laws in the south many states had separate schools for white children and black children and this was justified based on the supreme court's ruling in another landmark case from 1896 called plessy v ferguson which established the separate but equal doctrine what that meant is that the court ruled that racial segregation in public facilities was indeed constitutional as long as the separate facilities were equal so the case that we're considering brownfield the board of education came about because a black family tried to get their daughter enrolled in a white school that was close to their house but they were denied admission and thus were required to bust their daughter to a much more distant black school lower courts heard this case and upheld the president said in plessy and on appeal the case came before the supreme court so what was the constitutional principle at stake well brown and the other advocates argued that racial segregation in schools was a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment the lawyer for brown thurgood marshall argued using new findings in social science about racism saying that even if separate facilities were equal in terms of funding etc the very fact of separation was inherently equal to separate black children from white children marshall argued did damage to the psyche of black children and instilled in them an inferiority that was not easily shed so in light of that what was the decision well as i've told you in other videos it is a rare thing for the supreme court to overturn existing precedent but in this case by unanimous decision that is exactly what they did the court agreed that separate facilities violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment thus overturning the precedent said in plessy v ferguson in his written opinion chief justice earl warren said this to separate black children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone we conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place separate educational facilities are inherently unequal okay now why does this case matter well it matters first of all because it was a massive judicial victory for the burgeoning civil rights movement the movement which really began picking up steam in the 1950s sought all kinds of legislative and judicial acts which would acknowledge the equality of black and white americans and the brown case was a massive step in that direction however as you can probably imagine many of the southern states for whom school segregation was the norm resisted integration mightily unfortunately these states were given some license to do so because of the vague wording of the supreme court's decision the court ordered that schools be integrated with quote all deliberate speed and while we understand exactly what they meant by that like do it now southerners found just enough latitude in that phrase to stall all right let's go let's get those schools integrated now well when it comes to speed we would like to obey the dictate to the supreme court and be very deliberate about it so y'all let us alone while we go put some real time into figuring out how fast we can rightly go anyway while the brown decision was in fact a great victory on paper it was quite a while before schools were integrated but that's a video for another time okay that's what you need to know about brown v the board of education i've got videos right here on all the other required cases if you need them if you need help getting an a in your class and a five on your exam in may then click right here and grab review packet and all your dreams will come true and finally if this video helped you and you want me to keep making them then by all means subscribe and i shall oblige i'm out