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1954- Brown v. the Board of Education
"We conclude, unanimously, that in the field of public education
the doctrine of 'separate but equal" has no place. Separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal". (Chief
Justice Earl Warren)
The winning of this case in the Supreme Court of
the United States was the official beginning and legal basis for
the modern Civil Rights Movement.
From Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch,
p112:
On May 17, two weeks after Kings first
sermon as pastor-designate of Dextor (Baptist Church in Montgomery;
this is M.L. King, Jr.s first job after his doctoral), Chief Justice
Earl Warren handed down the Courts decision in the Brown Case, without
advance notice. News on the matter was so intense that the associated
press issued an advance warning at 12:52 pm noting simply that Warren
was issuing the opinion, another at 1:12 PM saying that he "had
not read far enough into the courts opinion" for reporters
to discern its conclusion, and a final bulletin at 1:20 declaring
the court had stuck down school desegregation as unconstitutional
by a vote of 8-0.
The earth shook, then it did not. There were no street celebrations
in the Negro communities. At Spellman College
in Atlanta, sophomore Barbara Johns continued her long standing
silence about her role in the case, sensing mild apprehension among
her fellow students. They seemed to worry the great vindication
might mean the extinction of schools like Spellman
.
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