. . In 1950 Reverend Oliver Brown of Topeka, Kansas, was incensed that his young daughters could not attend the Sumner Elementary School, an all-white public school close to their home. Instead, they had to walk nearly a mile through a dangerous railroad switchyard to reach a bus that would take them to an inferior all-black school. In the early 1950s, this sort of school segregation was commonplace in the South and certain border states. By law, all-black schools (and other segregated public facilities) were supposed to be as well-funded as whites’—but they rarely were. States typically spent twice as much money per student in white schools. Classrooms in black schools were overcrowded and dilapidated. In 1951 NAACP lead counsel Thurgood Marshall filed suit on behalf of Oliver Brown. By fall 1952, the Brown case and four other school desegregation cases had made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, all under the case name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Marshall argued that the Supreme Court should overturn the “separate but equal” ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had legitimized segregation. Marshall believed that even if states spent an equal amount of money on black schools, the segregated system would still be unfair because the stigma of segregation damaged black students psychologically. . . . Source: Beth Bailey, et al, The Fifties Chronicles, Legacy, 2008 3 According to this document, what is one reason Thurgood Marshall argued that the “separate but equal” ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson should be overturned?
. . . In 1950 Reverend Oliver Brown of Topeka, Kansas, was incensed that his young daughters could not attend the Sumner Elementary School, an all-white public school close to their home. Instead, they had to walk nearly a mile through a dangerous railroad switchyard to reach a bus that would take them to an inferior all-black school. In the early 1950s, this sort of school segregation was commonplace in the South and certain border states. By law, all-black schools (and other segregated public facilities) were supposed to be as well-funded as whites’—but they rarely were. States typically spent twice as much money per student in white schools. Classrooms in black schools were overcrowded and dilapidated. In 1951 NAACP lead counsel Thurgood Marshall filed suit on behalf of Oliver Brown. By fall 1952, the Brown case and four other school desegregation cases had made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, all under the case name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Marshall argued that the Supreme Court should overturn the “separate but equal” ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had legitimized segregation. Marshall believed that even if states spent an equal amount of money on black schools, the segregated system would still be unfair because the stigma of segregation damaged black students psychologically. . . .
Source: Beth Bailey, et al, The Fifties Chronicles, Legacy, 2008
3 According to this document, what is one reason Thurgood Marshall argued that the “separate but equal” ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson should be overturned?
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