Plessy v. Ferguson

    In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision ruled that black and white were "separate but equal." The black schools did not have as much as the white schools and were not equal. The ruling didnít keep its meaning. The law said "separate but equal," but white schools still had more power than black schools.

Brown vs. Board of Education

    It was not until 1954 that the law of "separate but equal" was challenged. Aided by the local chapter of the NAACP, a group of thirteen parents filed an action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka Schools, in Topeka Kansas. Linda Brown was the woman named in the case, and the case was called Brown vs. Broad of Education. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court voted that separate schools were unconstitutional.

    Black parents and community leaders were trying to help their children get an equal opportunity. So they filed suits against the segregation in America's schools. Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer for the NAACP, and helped Linda Brown win the case.

Soon after, white mobs were protesting outside of schools saying "No niggers are coming in this school." But the black students kept on trying to get into the schools. Some blacks were even brutally beaten, but blacks still used non-violence.

    In the Little Rock crisis, when the "Little Rock Nine" entered Central High School, they had to have U.S troops take them into the school.

    The Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, one of the major believers in school segregation, said "I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."  Even though Wallace thought segregation would last forever, it has been done away with in some schools, but some schools like academies are still segregated.

BY: KEVIN L. MINNIEFIELD