Separate but Equal: Brown v. Board of Education and the Desegregation Debate
A Series of Failures
African Americans did not accept segregation. Instead the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) devised a legal strategy to debate the harmful doctrine. They filed a series of cases that challenged the constitutionality of school segregation. Talented lawyer and debater, Thurgood Marshall, created the Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) for this purpose.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
Library of Congress
"[Thurgood Marshall] became known as "Mr. Civil Rights," a brilliant and tireless lawyer who roamed the nation fighting key civil rights battles in court. He defended blacks accused of crimes. He argued highly technical cases involving subtle aspects of constituional law."
Briggs v. Elliot
In Clarendon County, South Carolina, black students walked miles past white school buses to their impoverished school building. When parents petitioned for one bus for their children, they were denied. So, the parents contacted the NAACP for assistance and lawyers Thurgood Marshall and Robert Carter were appointed.
Joseph A. Delaine Papers
Joseph A. Delaine Papers
Joseph A. Delaine Papers
South Carolina's Equalization Schools.
Harry Briggs Sr, Washington University Repositiory
Joseph A. Delaine Papers
Joseph A. Delaine Papers
Rather than equalize the schools, the LDF aimed to debate the constitutionality of segregation itself and challenge the Plessy precedent through the Supreme Court. Their objective was integration, not separated equality. The LDF couldn’t debate segregation on the basis of prejudice alone. They required an argument that would void the logic behind Plessy. So, the LDF crafted a unique debate structured around the psychological damage segregation had on black children. Marshall enlisted Dr. Kenneth Clark to demonstrate evidence of their argument.
Doll Experiment
Well, we ask the child which one of these dolls does he like best, which one is a ''nice"' doll, which one is "bad," and we're interested not only in the child 's response to the specific question, but we're also interested in his spontaneous remarks as he attempts to justify it. Then, in order to find out whether that is predicated upon the child's knowledge of the racial factor, which these dolls are supposed to symbolize, we ask the child which is like a white child, which one is like a colored child, and finally the last question that we ask the child, after the child has expressed his opinion about the dolls, we ask the child "Which one is like you?" - Dr. Kenneth Clark, Briggs v. Elliot
Ten of them also considered the white doll a "Nice" doll. And, I think you have to keep in mind that these two dolls are absolutely identical in every respect except skin color. Eleven of these sixteen children chose the brown doll as the doll which looked "bad." -Kenneth Clark, Briggs v. Elliot
Segregation have definitely detrimental effects on the personality development of the Nergo child. The essence of this detrimental effect is a confusion in the child 's concept of his own self esteem-basic feelings of inferiority, conflict, confusion in his self image, resentnciit, hostility towards himself, hostility toward whites, intensification of sometimes a desire to resolve his basic conflict hy sometimes escaping or withdrawing. - Dr. Kenneth Clark, Briggs v. Elliot
Library of Congress
"The essence of this detrimental effect is a confusion in the child 's concept of his own self esteem-basic feelings of inferiority, conflict, confusion in his self image, resentment, hostility towards himself, hostility toward whites, intensification of sometimes a desire to resolve his basic conflict hy sometimes escaping or withdrawing."
NAACP LDF
"These children in Clarendon County, like other liuman beings who are subjected to an obviously inferior status in the society in which they live, have been definitely harmed in the development of their personalities; that the signs of instability in their personalities are clear." -Kenneth Clark
"The Negro child is made to go to an inferior school; he is branded in his own mind as inferior. This sets up a roadblock in his mind which prevents his ever feeling he is equal. You can teach such a child a Constitution, athropology, and citizenship, but he knows it isn't true." - Thurgood Marshall, Briggs v. Elliot
Interview with Dr. Kenneth Clark, Washington University
The court ruled in favor of segregation. However, Judge Waring wrote a lone dissent, a small success.
"Segregation is per se inequality." - Judge Julius Waring
"Here in this case, we are asked to strike its very root. Or rather, to change the metaphor, we are asked to strike at the cause of infection and not merely at the symptoms of disease. And if the courts of this land are to render justice under the laws without fear or favor, justice for all men and all kinds of men, the time to do it is now and the place is in the elementary schools where our future citizens learn their first lesson to respect the dignity of the individual in a democracy." - Judge Julius Waring, Briggs v. Elliot Dissent
The debate strategy developed in Briggs v. Elliot shaped the debate structure to come
Brown v. Board of Education
In Topeka, the local NAACP enlisted parents to file a lawsuit against segregation. Robert Carter and Jack Greenberg worked on the case, using expert testimonies to substantiate that segregation itself was unequal.
“Well, once trauma has occurred, and I do believe that attending a segregated school, perhaps after the preschool years of free pay with others of different skin color, is a trauma to the Negro child; that it occurs early. There is also emerging evidence from a study now going on at Harvard University that the later achievement of individual in their adult occupational careers can be predicted in first grade, If that is true, it means that the important effects of schooling in relation to later achievement are set down at that early age, and I therefore don’t think that simply removing segregation at a somewhat later grade could possibly undue those effects.” - Louisa Holt
“For example, if the colored children are denied the experience in school of associating with white children, who represent 90% of our national society in which these colored children must live, then the colored child’s curriculum cannot be equal under segregation.”- Hugh Spear
National Archives
National Archives
"Legal segregation definitely depresses the negroes expectancy, and is therefore prejudicial to his learning. If you get a child in the attitude that he is somehow inferior, and he thinks to himself, 'Well, I can’t learn this very well' , then he is unlikely to learn very well." - Horace English
"The fact that it is enforced, that it is legal, I think, has more importance than the mere fact of segregation by iteself does because this gives legal and official sanction to a policy which is inevitably interpreted by both white people and by Negroes as donting the inferitority of the Negro group."-Louisa Holt
Though the court ruled against the LDF, they acknowledged the harm of segregation. The LDF’s debate had successfully been accepted in court.
Davis v. Prince Edward County
In opposition to blatant inequality, black Virginian students staged a walkout. They asked Oliver Hill and Spotswood Robinson for legal aid. Once again, several scientists testified. Since the inequality was blatant, the defense pursued a different debate tactic, and relentlessly attacked the expert witnesses during cross examinations.
African American Registry
National Archives
National Archives
Library of Virginia
National Archives
National Archives
Belton v. Gebhart
Combined with the similar Bulah case, Delaware parents filed due to the blatant disparities between schools. The LDF had 14 expert witnesses testify. Their debate took a different approach, focusing on how segregation bred prejudice within white children. Remarkably, Judge Sietz ordered the schools to integrate. It was the first success in the desegregation debate. The case was appealed by the school board.
"The first real victory in our campaign to destroy segregation of American pupils in elementary and high schools." - Thurgood Marshall
Thedebate techniques developed during the district cases were essential to the successful dismantling of segregation.
