Road to Brown: Brown versus Board of Education as a Fight for Racial Desegregation - Movie Review Example

Road to Brown: Brown versus Board of Education as a Fight for Racial Desegregation Introduction The Road to Brown highlights the historical struggle to desegregate education systems in the US. This reflection paper will try to show that the road to achieving desegregation in the United States started earlier. The essay will reflect on major historical events that led to equality in school systems amongst black and white children, culminating in the 1954 supreme court ruling that allowed black children to share the same school facilities as the white children. Major ideas Road to brown is not just about the madness of racial segregation in South Carolina but it is an important documentary that shows the brown versus he board of education case was the catalyst for later civil rights activities. Before the Brown versus board of education case of 1954, the events of desegregation went back to the times of slavery as the documentary highlights (McMahon, 2004). Elaboration and Analysis The reviews take place in Chester County, South Carolina, where the population of students in a high school is half-white and half-black. During the Jim Crow era, 35 years earlier, it was unlawful for Africans Americans to share school and buses with the white. A lawyer Charles Houston Hamilton documented the inequalities between the schools for whites and schools for blacks across South Carolina. Several factors led to the Brown versus Board of Education. Slavery was the basis of all racial discrimination in the US. The constitution of the United States at the time of the nation’s founding permitted the practice to continue. The Supreme Court was biased in 1857 and reaffirmed the execution of Africans Americans from the constitution on the basis that, the Negroes were inferior. Later on, Slavery was abolished by the 13th amendment of the constitution. Furthermore, all citizens’ equal protection was guaranteed by the 14th amendment. Further reforms under the 15th Amendment allowed black citizens to vote. However, racial segregation especially in the Education System continued (Elwood, 1990). It is clear that brown versus board of Education was a win for all areas in the civil rights movement. Brown versus board of education A trial on ending segregation in school systems, where Africans had their own schools as well as the whites too had their own schools in this case. The case was a consolidation of four other cases that were filed against segregation in schools across the country, among them a Washington DC suit begun by Charles Houston. Houston died of heart April 22 1950 at 54 years old having given his life on the course. Since Houston was dead at the time of the trial (1952), Thurgood Marshall, once Houston’s student became the chief coordinator for the brown strategy. He was the Chief Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Marshall relied both on the team of experts of NAACP lawyers and leading scholars and educators from around the nation. Marshall faced opposition from John W. Davis, a formidable famous legal opponent, as the chief counselThe American lawyers behind the Brown movement were-Constance Motley, Robert Carter, Jack Greenberg, James Narbit, Oliver Hill, Louis Redding, and Charles Houston. Marshall, in 1952 December, argued that segregated schools marked black children inferiority stamp and affected their learning denying the black people the equal protection of the law guaranteed by the 14th amendment. John Davis relied on Plessy segregation justification to argue with a mind to win a legal victory. Later in 1954 May, the Supreme Court made the ruling over the Brown case in favor of desegregation, Charles Houston’s dream (Patterson, 2001). The Jim Crow system This was an era characterized by racial violence, where over 2000 African-Americans were lynched in the first years of the century. In Louisiana, black people decided to test the new laws’ constitutionality. Hommer Plessy sat in a car reserved for the whites with the thought that the Supreme Court would not rule against him incase he was arrested but on the contrary, he was arrested and judged in the case Plessy v. Ferguson. The role of NAACP Houston’s need for an organization linked to black community that could support in attacking the Jim Crow system led him to NAACP, National Advancement of Colored People that had been formed in 1909. Murray v Maryland This was a case of Donald Murray, who had been denied admission to the University of Maryland based on his race. Houston sued in the municipal court and mobilized people to attend the trial on the day where the court ordered the state University to admit Murray (James, 2010). Teacher’s salary The salary of the black Americans was a fraction of the white’s salary. Houston delegated Thurgood Marshall, Oliver Hill and other young attorneys to review the salaries and by the end of 1939, Houston and Marshall had gathered enough cases that enabled them to force equalization of the salaries (DuBose, 2002). Conclusion In conclusion, eradication of the Jim Crow system and desegregation has been a process that has involved relentless effort of dedicated black Americans. The process has been successful because in the beginning of the cast we see that the school has half-white and half-black population. We see that the principle of the school is also black. The victory of brown versus board of education opened up the civil rights movement to a national level. Thus road to Brown is a documentary that highlights the process of desegregation in the educational system and how it lead to the civil rights movement. References Bankston, C.L. and Caldas, S.J. (2002). A troubled dream: the promise and failure of school desegregation in Louisiana. Nashville, Tn: Vanderbilt University Press DuBose, S. (2002). The road to Brown: the leadership of a soldier of the cross, Rev. J.A. DeLaine : recollections of courage. Savannah, GA: Williams Pub. Elwood William. (1990). Road to Brown Transcript. California: California Newsreel retrieved 24th March, 2012 from http://newsreel.org/transcripts/roadtob.htm James, R. (2010). Root and branch: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and the struggle to end segregation. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA McMahon, K.J. (2004). Reconsidering Roosevelt on race: how the presidency paved the road to Brown. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Patterson, J.T. (2001).Brown V. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy: Pivotal Moments in American History. Oxford: Oxford University Press Swift, J. (1991). Dream and reality: the modern Black struggle for freedom and equality. New York: ABC-CLIO Read More