Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Resources to assist teachers in teaching about the seminal Supreme Court case that struck down "separate but equal" education for African-American students.
Resources
In 1954, the US Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which in effect ended segregation in education by race or ethnicity. In short, it was determined that separate facilities by race were inherently unequal and schools must be desegregated. You can read the case and decision on Oyez, the site for Supreme Court Media from the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
The National Park Service hosts a site for the National Historic Site for Brown V Board in Topeka, Kansas. In addition, the official Twitter feed for the historic site conducted a re-enactment of the decision on May 17 and 18, 2014.
The Brown Foundation in Mission, KS has multiple educational resources looking at the 60th anniversary of the case. They offer an online tour of the national historic site.
The National Archives hosted an expert panel to discuss Brown v. Board for the 60th anniversary. They also hold the federal records and have a Teaching With Documents lesson plan.
PBS has a page looking at landmark Supreme Court Cases, including Brown. It includes links to definitions for key terms including the Fourteenth Amendment and cases such as Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
The Wisconsin Historical Society has a page with many original documents and other primary sources on desegregation, especially focused on Milwaukee. In fact, they have a completely separate book regarding The Effects of Milwaukee School Desegregation Efforts (1992).
- The Washington Post looks at how Brown succeeded (or didn't)