Brown So What

Jeremy Keeshin

So What? – Brown 1954 marked the year of change in the United States. The swirl of opinions surrounding the legal dilemma over civil rights came into question then more than ever before. Brown v. Board of Education was significant because it distinguished the end of an old era of civil rights and ushered in and cleared the path for future progress. The main reason Brown matters is because it was the first case to most passionately assert equality and reverse the accepted norm of Plessy v. Ferguson. The notion of racial separation and “separate but equal” had been drilled into the American psyche to the point of numbing it. The states didn’t care that “separate but equal” was trying to promote racial equality. They just wanted to barely eke out past the requirements of political equality under the law. States were under the impression that if there was education for blacks and there was education for whites, then it was equal. It was separate, but it was equal. They pleaded ignorance to the fact that this was the farthest thing from which it was. This further endorsed white superiority and amplified the gap of racial equality. The Fourteenth Amendment was being minimized at all angles by the courts to maintain this status quo. No one in America was ready for change. That is why Brown matters. It marked change. Warren’s vehement pursuit of the unanimous opinion was integral to giving Brown an impact. A 9-0, sturdy vote would mean more to America than a divided court. A divided court could not convince a divided America. A united court barely could. The task of persuading America to just drop its old habits of racism and segregation was not going to be helped by a weak opinion. The idea that “separate is inherently unequal” was the new realization in America that it was time to move forward albeit the old vices of discrimination and intolerance. Brown was the final step in a long line of cases to seal the deal on civil rights. Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada made some progress, which was continued later by the decision in Sweatt v. Painter, which was continued by McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Each case was a small phase of the major battle for civil rights. Brown was not the end of the battle for civil rights, but it was a very strong end to the beginning of that fight.