What Happened In Little Rock, Arkansas 1957-1959?

Term Paper Title	What Happened In Little Rock, Arkansas 1957-1959?
# of Words	1913
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	7.65

What Happened in Little Rock, Arkansas 1957-1959?

     After slavery, little by little, blacks were gaining their rights and equality.  Even so, African Americans were considered equal but separate.  Most whites believed that the white race is superior to black and that the races should be separated (Kluger 83). During 1950s, racism became a main national concern. Civil rights organizations, such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pressured the courts to take actions against segregation. Laws were made to prohibit the separation of the races, however (Whitman xx).  In 1957, in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, white citizens attacked African American students that tried to integrate the Central High School, with riots, violence, and other legal maneuvers ("Desegregation").
African Americans suffered widespread discrimination. The "equal but separate" public facilities, including schools were justified by the Court.  However, "equal" was rarely the case. Many schools for black children lacked the advantages of schools for white children. Governmental spending per student on school materials and teachers' salaries was more for whites than for blacks. African Americans became frustrated and angry. (Whitman 7-9).
When Reverend Oliver Brown of Topeka (a black man) wanted to enroll his daughter in an elementary school that was nearer to their home than the all-black school, the authorities denied his child's admission because it was for white kids only.  Brown sued the Topeka Board of Education, saying he was being denied equal protection under the law (Kluger 372).    His lawsuit was grouped with five separate, although similar suits against school districts of other areas.  Four of these cases, Brown vs. Board of
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Education, Briggs vs. Elliot, Davis vs. County school Board of Prince Edward County, and Belton vs. Gebhart complained that segregation violates the Fourteenth Amendment (Whitman 123), which states that, "No state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction" (v).  Their goal was to convince the Supreme Court that the separate facilities for black and white races denied equal protection of the laws even though the facilities were similar in advantage (xv).   The remaining lawsuit, Bolling vs. Sharpe, differed, even though it was argued before the Supreme Court with the other four. It focused on racial segregation being allowed under the Fifth Amendment, which applies to District of Columbia and does not include an equal protection clause (Kluger 786).   Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka became a title for the collection of five cases (Whitman xvi).
Lawyers from the national organizations of New York represented the black parents, involved in the case (Kluger 372).  Brown's lawyer was a highly respectable black lawyer, Thurgood Marshall.  When the arguments took place, attorneys for the school districts told the Court that it should not interfere with what an individual state did.  But Marshall spoke out strongly against segregation.  He declared, " Ever since the Emancipation Proclamation, the Negro has been trying to get the same status as everybody else, regardless of race" (Whitman 110).
The Supreme Court acknowledged the matter of Brown's side.  The final decision was unanimous (Whitman 279-281).  On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the court's ruling.  It has declared segregation unconstitutional (Edwald 81).

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The Supreme Court ordered desegregation in all public schools.  The decision brought centuries of legal segregation and discrimination to an end.  However, integration would not be accomplished quickly, at least without resistance, confusion, and violence (Beals 29-31).
The Brown decision angered southern segregationists.  Several states went as far as vowing to abolish public schools to avoid desegregation.  Other districts ignored the Court's order (Edwald 206).  There were boycotts, threats, and harassment of black students.  The enforcement of the ruling became depended on the state and...

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