Black, White, and Brown: The Landmark School Desegregation Case in Retrospect

A Publication of the Supreme Court Historical Society Preface by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Few decisions in constitutional law have had as dramatic an impact on American life as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954). This collection of essays published by the Supreme Court Historical Society and CQ Press to commemorate Brown’s 50th anniversary, captures the complex history and legacy of the decision that changed public education and race relations in America. Leading constitutional scholars chronicle the path of the law from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legitimating separate but equal in all realms of public life to Brown holding segregated schools to be inherently unequal in 1954. The essays in Black, White and Brown examine: How civil rights litigators chipped away at the logic underpinning the separate-but-equal doctrine, focusing their greatest efforts on exposing the injustice of segregation in education. These essays bring that struggle into clearer focus. The challenges in enforcing Brown and its impact on African-American rights and race relations in America. How public and scholarly opinion about the case has changed over the last five decades and