Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy

Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy

by James T. Patterson
ISBN-10:
0195156323
ISBN-13:
9780195156324
Pub. Date:
12/12/2002
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0195156323
ISBN-13:
9780195156324
Pub. Date:
12/12/2002
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy

Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy

by James T. Patterson
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Overview

2004 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision to end segregation in public schools. Many people were elated when Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in May 1954, the ruling that struck down state-sponsored racial segregation in America's public schools. Thurgood Marshall, chief attorney for the black families that launched the litigation, exclaimed later, "I was so happy, I was numb." The novelist Ralph Ellison wrote, "another battle of the Civil War has been won. The rest is up to us and I'm very glad. What a wonderful world of possibilities are unfolded for the children!"

Here, in a concise, moving narrative, Bancroft Prize-winning historian James T. Patterson takes readers through the dramatic case and its fifty-year aftermath. A wide range of characters animates the story, from the little-known African Americans who dared to challenge Jim Crow with lawsuits (at great personal cost); to Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Justice himself; to Earl Warren, who shepherded a fractured Court to a unanimous decision. Others include segregationist politicians like Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas; Presidents Eisenhower, Johnson, and Nixon; and controversial Supreme Court justices such as William Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas.

Most Americans still see Brown as a triumph—but was it? Patterson shrewdly explores the provocative questions that still swirl around the case. Could the Court—or President Eisenhower—have done more to ensure compliance with Brown? Did the decision touch off the modern civil rights movement? How useful are court-ordered busing and affirmative action against racial segregation? To what extent has racial mixing affected the academic achievement of black children? Where indeed do we go from here to realize the expectations of Marshall, Ellison, and others in 1954?

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195156324
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 12/12/2002
Series: Pivotal Moments in American History
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 539,370
Product dimensions: 6.28(w) x 9.34(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

James T. Patterson won the Bancroft Prize in History for Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974. He is the author of numerous books concerning modern American life, he is Ford Foundation Professor of History at Brown University.

Table of Contents

Editors' Notexi
Preface: Contesting the Color Linexiii
1Race and the Schools Before Brown1
2The Grass Roots and Struggling Lawyers21
3The Court Decides46
4Crossroads, 1954-5570
5Southern Whites Fight Back86
6Striving for Racial Balance in the 1960s118
7The Burger Court Surprises147
8Stalemates170
9Resegregation?191
10Legacies and Lessons206
Appendix IKey Cases225
Appendix IITables and Figures227
Notes237
Bibliographical Essay263
Acknowledgments269
Index271
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