Brown v. Board of Education: A Documentary History / Edition 50

by Mark Whitman

Overview

This critical contribution marks the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. The book lets the reader come to grips with the fascinating record of a case in which facts have made a more thrilling story than fiction. The suit involved civil rights giants Thurgood Marshall and the leaders of the NAACP. Their goals were lofty: not content with merely improving the conditions for black children in a single school district, they chose to fight for an end to all segregation. They mapped out a careful strategy as early as 1939, picking the most promising cases, achieving lower court decisions, and finally combining the five cases for the countdown to Brown before the Supreme Court. The book contains a general introduction and extensive commentary. But it attempts for the most part to let the majestic record of Brown speak for itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558763302
Publisher:	Wiener, Markus Publishers, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/02/2012
Edition description:	Fiftieth Annive
Pages:	394
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)

Table of Contents

	Preface to the 2004 Edition	vii
	Contents	ix
	General Introduction	xv
Part 1	Prelude: The Forebears of Brown	1
I.	Charles Sumner: Argument in Roberts v. City of Boston (1849)	3
II.	Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): The Bad Seed	7
1.	Brief for Plaintiff--Albion Tourgee	8
2.	Brief for Plaintiff--Samuel F. Phillips	12
3.	Majority Opinion of Justice Henry Brown	14
4.	Justice John Marshall Harlan, Dissenting	15
III.	Brief by Charles H. Houston and Thurgood Marshall: University of Maryland v. Murray (1936)	18
IV.	Gunnar Myrdal: An American Dilemma (1944)	21
V.	The NAACP's Brief: Sweatt v. Painter (1950)	27
VI.	Sweatt v. Painter (1950) and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)	33
Part 2	The Trial Level	37
	Introduction	39
I.	The Doll Man and His Critics	48
1.	Testimony of Kenneth Clark--Briggs Trial	49
2.	Edmond Cahn--"Jurisprudence" (1955)	52
3.	Note: "Grade School Segregation: The Latest Attack on Discrimination"--Yale Law Journal (1952)	54
4.	Ernest van den Haag and Ralph Ross--The Fabric of Society (1957)	55
5.	Reply by Kenneth Clark--Prejudice and Your Child (1963)	57
II.	The Social Scientists Speak	59
1.	Louisa Holt--Brown Trial	59
2.	David Krech--Briggs Trial	62
3.	M. Brewster Smith--Davis Trial	64
4.	Wilbur B. Brookover--Brown Trial	67
5.	Isidor Chein--Davis Trial	69
6.	Hugh W. Speer--Brown Trial	70
III.	Rebuttal in Virginia	73
1.	John Nelson Buck	74
2.	William H. Kelly	79
3.	Henry Garrett	80
4.	Colgate Darden	83
IV.	Mr. Moore's Antics	86
1.	Cross-Examination of Kenneth Clark	87
2.	Cross-Examination of Isidor Chein	90
3.	Cross-Examination of John Julian Brooks	91
V.	The Preliminary Decisions	93
1.	Briggs v. Elliott	94
2.	Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County	98
3.	Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka	99
4.	Belton v. Gebhart	101
Part 3	At the Bar of the Supreme Court: The First Argument	105
	Introduction	107
I.	Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka	119
1.	Appellants' Brief	120
2.	Appellees' Brief	125
3.	Oral Argument	128
II.	Briggs v. Elliott	133
1.	Appellants' Brief	134
2.	Appellees' Brief	138
3.	Oral Argument	142
III.	Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County	149
1.	Appellees' Brief	149
2.	Appellants' Brief	153
3.	Oral Argument	156
IV.	Postscript: Belton v. Gebhart: What Happens When You Win?	158
1.	NAACP Brief	158
2.	Oral Argument--Louis Redding	159
V.	A Friend of the Court: Brief of the American Jewish Congress	161
Part 4	The Supreme Court: Reargument	165
	Introduction	167
I.	The Controversy Over "whr"	195
1.	"A Random Thought on the Desegregation Cases"	196
2.	Rehnquist's Letter to Senator James O. Eastland, December 8, 1971	198
3.	The Brooke Memorandum	200
II.	A Slight Digression: The Matter of Original Intent	205
1.	Robert Bork--"The Constitution, Economic Rights and Original Intent" (1986)	206
2.	Terrance Sandalow--"Constitutional Interpretation" (1981)	210
III.	Double Perspectives	219
1.	Alfred Kelly--"An Inside View of Brown v. Board of Education" (1961)	219
2.	Alfred Kelly--"The Fourteenth Amendment Reconsidered: The Segregation Question" (1956)	227
3.	Alexander Bickel--Letter to Justice Frankfurter (1953)	234
4.	Alexander Bickel--"The Original Understanding and the Segregation Decision" (1955)	236
5.	Endnote--Kelly's Rebuttal to Bickel (1956)	242
IV.	Reargument: The Central Conflict	244
1.	Briggs v. Elliott--Appellees' Brief on Reargument	245
2.	Reargument Brief--Davis v. County School Board	248
3.	Appellants' Brief on Reargument--The Constitutional Issue	250
4.	The Oral Argument	255
V.	Reargument: The Remedy	260
1.	Supplemental Brief for the United States on Reargument	261
2.	Oral Argument on Behalf of the United States--J. Lee Rankin	263
3.	Appellants' Brief on Reargument--The Remedy	267
4.	Phillip Elman--"The Solicitor General's Office, Justice Frankfurter, and Civil Rights Litigation, 1946-1960: An Oral History" (1987)	272
	Conclusion: The Riddle of Brown	277
	Introduction	279
I.	Countdown to May 17, 1954	292
1.	Memorandum by Justice Robert H. Jackson (March 15, 1954)	292
2.	Felix Frankfurter--Undated Memorandum	300
3.	Phillip Elman--"The Solicitor General's Office, Justice Frankfurter, and Civil Rights Litigation"	301
4.	Brown v. Board of Education (1954)	305
II.	The Debate Over Brown	310
1.	Herbert Wechsler--"Toward Neutral Principles of Constitutional Law" (1959)	311
2.	Louis H. Pollak--"Racial Discrimination and Judicial Integrity: A Reply to Professor Wechsler" (1959)	313
3.	John Kaplan--"Segregation Litigation and the Schools," Part II: "The General Northern Problem" (1963)	318
4.	Charles L. Black--"The Lawfulness of the Segregation Decisions" (1960)	320
5.	Owen M. Fiss--"Racial Imbalance in the Public Schools: The Constitutional Concepts" (1965)	331
III.	Bolling v. Sharpe: The Court's Commentary on Brown?	335
1.	Brief for Petitioners--Bolling v. Sharpe	336
2.	Bolling v. Sharpe (1954)	339
3.	Rejoinder--Owen M. Fiss (1965)	340
	Afterword	342
	List of Detailed Sources	345
	For Further Reading	350
	Acknowledgements	355