Brown: A Landmark Case

This video segment describes the players and events of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and how it galvanized the Civil Rights movement as well as white resistance.

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Debating Slavery

In this video segment adapted from Africans in America, learn how the issue of slavery shaped the debate at the U.S. Constitutional Convention.

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Declaring Freedom...But For Whom?

In this video segment adapted from Africans in America, consider the American view of freedom that was defined by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.

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Documenting Brown 1: The Fourteenth Amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment established the equal protection clause, later used in key desegregation cases.

Documenting Brown 2: Plessy v. Ferguson

The Supreme Court's 1896 ruling legalized the "separate but equal" doctrine that sanctioned segregation.

Documenting Brown 3: Gong Lum v. Rice

The Supreme Court's 1927 opinion in Gong Lum v. Rice affirmed legalized school segregation.

Documenting Brown 4: Mendez v. Westminster

This 1946 federal court ruling marked a victory for Mexican Americans and chipped away at the "separate but equal" doctrine, declaring segregated schools based on national origin unconstitutional.

Documenting Brown 5: Brown v. Board of Education, 1954

The Supreme Court's landmark opinion overturned its earlier ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson and declared segregated schools unconstitutional.

Documenting Brown 6: Brown v. Board of Education, 1955

The Supreme Court's opinion in Brown II reflects the struggle between federal and state governments on how and when school desegregation would occur.

Documenting Brown 7: Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped enforce the Brown ruling, a decade later.

Documenting Brown: Collected Excerpts

This collection of excerpts from legislation and court decisions documents key phases of the legal struggle to gain and implement equal education.

Harry Briggs, Sr. and Eliza Briggs

In this transcript of an interview for Eyes on the Prize, Harry and Eliza Briggs describe their experience in the first school desegregation case, Briggs v. Elliott.

Brown Reactions: Black Educators

This 1954 statement, issued by a group of black educators, strongly endorses the Supreme Court's Brown ruling.

Brown Reactions: Editorials

This sampling of newspaper editorials from the mid-1950s reflects the range of public opinion and responses to the Brown decision.

Brown Reactions: Judge Brady

This 1954 statement from Tom Brady, a founder of the White Citizens' Council movement, expresses opposition to the Brown decision.

Brown Reactions: Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston's 1955 letter to the editor expresses her belief that the Brown decision would prove detrimental to the educational interests of black students.

Mendez v. Westminster: Desegregating California's Schools

Sylvia Mendez recalls the conditions that led Mexican Americans to sue for desegregation in the 1940s in this segment from Mendez vs. Westminster: Para Todos los Niños/For All the Children, from KOCE-TV.

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Reconsidering Brown

In the video segments presented in this activity, leading historians and legal scholars reflect on the promise of the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, and why it remains unfulfilled.

Re-Examining Brown

This lesson explores the historical complexity of the struggle to desegregate schools, the geographic scope of racism, conditions that prompted activism and litigation, and how laws have changed over time.

The Road to Brown

This video segment looks at the history of the NAACP's efforts to convince the Supreme Court that segregated schools were unconstitutional, leading up to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education cases.

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Simple Justice 1: A Handful of Lawyers

This segment from American Experience: "Simple Justice" profiles Charles Houston's strategy for attacking segregation and how he trained the legal team that eventually argued the Brown case.

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Simple Justice 3: The Trial Begins

This segment from American Experience: "Simple Justice" captures the legal issues and opening arguments in Brown v. Board of Education.

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Simple Justice 5: Marshall's Closing Statement

This segment from American Experience: "Simple Justice" reenacts Thurgood Marshall's closing statement in Brown v. Board of Education.

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Simple Justice 6: Justice Warren Reads the Decision

This segment from American Experience: "Simple Justice" explores the dynamics and arguments among the Supreme Court justices who ruled in Brown v. Board of Education.

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