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President Roosevelt and the New Deal have often been criticized for the lack of attention to New Deal. Actually there were some important advances and none were more important than appointments to the Federal judiciary. This came to fruition when black parents in several states challenged school segregation. The land-mark Supreme Court decission that turned the tide in the Civil Rights struggle was Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka. Several similar cases were united for consideration by the court. The best known is the Brown case which concerned Linda Brown--a little Black girl in Topeka, Kansas. There were also cases from the South, including one from South Carolina. The state of South Carolina realising that the Seoarate but Equal doctrine could be challenged by the obvious inequality of Black and White schools, had embarked on a major building program to construct Black schools. evenso, any fairminded cort would have found unequal facilities. Thurgood Marshall decided, however, decided to persue the principle that separate schools were inherently unequal. Chief Justice Earl Warren carefully guided the Court so that a unanimous verdictv was reached. President Eusenhower who had earlier opposed deseggregatioin of the military was to later say that his appointment of Warren was the biggest mistake he made as president.
The Supreme Court countenced segreagation in the Plessy vs. Fergusson decission (1898) and a system of racial aparthaid enforced by law and the lynch rope ruled the American South until well after World War II (1939-45). Plessy established the legal doctine of separate, but equal. This was the only legal way of supportinmg segregation because the 14th Amendment had guaranteed "equal protection" under thelaw for all Americans. While the legal doctrine was "separate, but equal", in practice separate facuilities were almost always demostrably unqual--often dramatically so.
n the South there was a very limited public school system before the Civil War. As public school systems were established following the Civil War, black children were at first excluded. Eventually separate schools were established for the black children. Separate schools were but one aspect of the segregation system established in the Southern states. Segregation did not only involve separating black children, but they were the primary target. Nor did segration only occur in the South, although this is wear the vast majority of segregated schools existed. These schools were poorly funded and the facilities and equipment were far below the standards of he white schools. There were cost associated with running two school systems. White children were often bussed. Black children normally had to walk. After World war II, several southern states began improving the black schools, realizing that they were vulnerable to legal challenge because they were so obviously inferior.
President Roosevelt and the New Deal have often been criticized for the lack of attention to New Deal. Actually there were some important advances and none were more important than appointments to the Federal judiciary. Ironically it was the Supreme Court after the Democratic landslides that brought President Roosevelt to power that threatened the New deal, leading to Roosevelt's disastrous court packing effort. But Presudent Roosevely (12 years) and President Truman (8 years), significantly chnged the character of the Federal judiciary. Part of President Roosevelt's genius was knowing what could be achieved. Many problems needed to be corrected in the 1930s. The New Deal addressed many of those problems and achieved major advances. Civil rights was not one of the priorities, although there were acomplishments. But judicial appointments were something that could be accomplished.
Walter White at the NAACP brought Charles Hamilton Houston (1895-1950) into the organization. Houston was the grandson of fugative slaves who escaped north. Although his name is not widely known outside the Civil Rights movement, he is one of the most important lawyers in American history. He devoted his career to undoing the Plessy decission which served as the nasis for Jim Crow in the South. Houston worked tireslessly toward that end. Houston was the legal mastermind behind the NAACP's challenge to segregation after World War II. He was appointed dean of the Howard University Law School in 1939 and in effect trained an entire generation of Civil rights lawyers. He told his students that a lawyer "is either a social engineer or he is a parasite on society". He was tough and extremely demanding on his students, but in the end turned out lawyers that proved more than a match for the White lawyers from prestigious Southern universities. It was Huston who recruited Thurgood Marshall. Marshall led a small team of brilliant lawyers, many trained at Howard University, which honed in on the school segration issue at a time when many thought the movement should focus elsewhere, such as lynching, marriage laws, and other issues. Later after Marshall's victory in the Brown decission, Marshall remarked, "We were only carrying (Houston's) bags, that's all."
The changes in the Federal judiciary came to fruition when black parents in several states challenged school segregation. The land-mark Supreme Court decission that turned the tide in the Civil Rights struggle was Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka. Several similar cases were united for consideration by the court. The best known is the Brown case which concerned Linda Brown--a little Black girl in Topeka, Kansas. There were also cases from the South, including one from South Carolina.
The state of South Carolina realising that the Seoarate but Equal doctrine could be challenged by the obvious inequality of Black and White schools, had embarked on a major building program to construct Black schools. evenso, any fairminded cort would have found unequal facilities.
Thurgood Marshall decided, however, decided to persue the principle that separate schools were inherently unequal. This was a risky decesion. Marshall's legal team woulf have no problem proving that the schools blacks attended were unequal. It was a much more difficult challenge to prove that they were inherently unequal.
Ear Warren had been the givenor of Califirnia and a republican candidate for vice president. Press Eisenhower appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Earl Warren carefully guided the Court so that a unanimous verdict was reached. President Eusenhower who had earlier opposed deseggregatioin of the military was to later say that his appointment of Warren was the biggest mistake he made as president. For two decades after the Brown decession, Southern highways were festooned with "Imprach Earl Warren" billboards.
The Brown decesion proved to be only the first step in desegregating public schools. It would be 20 years before large numbers of black children would begin attending integrated schools. Southern States challenged the ruling. Souther politicans urged "massive resistance. Prince William county in Virginia even closed down its public schools. President Eisenhower who was dountful about integration, reluctantly used Federal troops to enforce court orders in Arkansas. Ptesident Kennedy was also reluctant, not because he objected to integration, but because he needed southern Congressional votes for his legislative efforts. He did put the prestige of his office and Federal Goverbment behinf integration. Finally it is a southern president, Lyndon Johnson that would persuee policies that would begin to see real integration as well as two land-marl civil rigts laws.
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