How Brown v. Board of Education Overturned "Separate but Equal": History, Impact, and Contemporary Echoes

Yu Gong

doi:10.63313/IJSSEH.9028

Authors

Yu Gong School of Law, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/IJSSEH.9028

Keywords:

Brown v. Board of Education, Right to Education, Equal Protection, Separate but Equal, Educational Equity

Abstract

Through doctrinal analysis structured around the IRAC framework, this study examines how Chief Justice Warren engineered Brown v. Board of Education to overturn “separate but equal.” He shifted the Issue from original intent to social reality; displaced the Rule by distinguishing Plessy as a transportation case; drew on Sweatt and McLaurin to analyze intangible harms, holding that segregation generates “a feeling of inferiority” affecting “hearts and minds”; and concluded that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” This reframing dismantled a half‑century of doctrine. The decision’s inevitability arose from World War II, Cold War pressures, Black political empowerment, and economic integration. Yet implementation proved uneven, producing white flight, marginalization of Black educators, and—compounded by Rodriguez and residential segregation—de facto resegregation. Contemporary inequality now spans funding, teacher quality, and college access, while Students for Fair Admissions retreats from Brown’s logic. Brown’s legacy is thus a legal triumph that exposed the judiciary’s limits; its promise of genuine educational equality remains unfinished.

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