Brown v. the Board: What I Learned
During our third mock trial for the Supreme Court case of Brown v. the Board of Education and the EOTO presentations following our arguments, I learned some new information regarding the case that isn't widely spoken of. I learned that the schools of Topeka, Kansas were already integrated at the elementary level. With this information, it could've severely detrimental to the students socially to segregate them after they've already spent years creating friendships or at the very least getting acquainted with each other. Also, in my research I found that the U.S. Department of Justice took a stance in this case which is usually not the case unless the argument involves federal law (History.com). This was especially interesting to me because, as I put the pieces of this case together, I'm slowly realizing just how many important people felt the way many black people did but felt like they couldn't speak up or just chose not to for reasons I couldn't understand as someone who grew up in a different time period. I also learned why Topeka, Kansas was "the face" of Brown v. the Board. It was because the schools were actually almost equal in quality in Topeka which forced Brown's case to focus on the wrongness of the concept of segregation (all4ed.org). This is a particularly interesting topic of conversation because as I think about it more, did this make it easier to argue their case or harder? There are many interesting tidbits about this case that are neglected to be mentioned for some reason but in my opinion, these are the facts that really prove the case of Brown. Perhaps these facts were hidden for a large period of time because of the push or segregation and they're only getting line shone on them now because of today's events regarding racism and prejudice. As history repeats itself over and over again, I can't help but wonder when things will really change.