Brown V. Board of Education

During the Mock trial that we had in class, my group and I fought for the side of Brown in the Brown v. Board of Education. Brown v Board of Education was a case brought to the supreme court by the NAACP who were standing on behalf of Lydia Brown. Each day, Linda Brown and her sister had to walk through a dangerous railroad switchyard to get to the bus stop for the ride to their all-black elementary school. There was a school closer to the Brown's house, but it was only for white students. Linda Brown and her family believed that the segregated school system violated the Fourteenth Amendment and took their case to court. The case that came to be known as Brown v. Board of Education was actually the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. Many cases set a precedent for the final ruling of this case. Including the Murray v. Maryland case. In addition, another case that set a precedent was a 1949 case called McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher Education. The side that I fought for was; John Marshall Harlan was the only justice of the supreme court who disagreed with the majority of justices on the Plessy v. Ferguson case.In the case, the court ruled in favor of Ferguson. Judge Harlan’s vote was overruled by the justices, in which case caused him to write a dissent in contrast. His dissent stated that all citizens should be entitled to equal civil rights without the involvement of the judicial system and a person’s race. The 14th amendment states that in regards to the law, blacks and whites have the same rights however the segregation which occurs is an inequality of the races. Harlan states “in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” What Harlan is implying is that the American people may be implementing laws which say the rights of whites and blacks are equal however, these laws are avoided through varying cases of segregation. Overall, after each one of my group members stated their arguments from their side we then came down to who was going to win and my group ended up winning this Mock trial.