The Road to Equal Education: From HBCUs to Brown v. Board

At the time of the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, segregation was deeply embedded in daily life across the Southern states. The children of formerly enslaved people could not attend the same schools as white children. “Separate but equal” was almost never truly equal. African American children often attended inferior school buildings with limited teaching resources. Yet African Americans were resilient. Leaders like Booker T. Washington founded rigorous schools that demanded excellence. Many students, including Thurgood Marshall, rose to meet these challenges and went on to make a lasting difference in the lives of all Americans.

Objective

By the end of this lesson, students will learn about the struggles African Americans faced after the Civil War in gaining access to quality education and Thurgood Marshall’s role in helping to end school segregation in the United States.

Essential Questions

How did the Freedmen’s Bureau help African Americans get an education after the Civil War?
What did the Supreme Court decide in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), and why was it important?
How did HBCUs give more opportunities for African Americans to learn?
How did Brown v. Board of Education (1954) bring change and fairness to schools?

Thinking Questions

How were schools for Black children different from schools for white children? Was “separate but equal” really equal?
Why was the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision important?
What do you think the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision did for Thurgood Marshall’s reputation? What evidence supports your thinking?
How do change and fairness connect to the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision?

Video Transcript

Dr. Irving Joyner, Charles Hamilton Houston Endowed Chair and Professor of Law, North Carolina Central University in Durham:
Brown achieved the notion that the law as written is articulated in an equal manner and promotes the notion that all of us are equal in our ability and opportunities to make it in the American society. That differs from the reality that we have because the social discrimination, personal discrimination, cultural discrimination that always controlled America was still in control until such time that other laws were enacted to make that illegal, like Title VII dealing with employment discrimination or housing discrimination, which did not occur until 1964 in one instance, Voting Rights Act 1965, Housing Rights Act in 1968. But those then came along to deal with these other levels of discrimination.

Wil Haygood, author of Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America (2015):
Brown v. Board of Education, which was, yes, a school case, but it was more than a school case because it psychologically put the legal establishment on notice. Thurgood is coming.

Sheryll D. Cashin, author and the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Civil Rights and Social Justice at Georgetown University:
I also, in particular, got to live the vision of Brown v. Board. I happened to go to public school for 12 years, and each year, the schools became more integrated, so I got to go to school and come of age at a time when the South was really trying to make good on Brown v. Board, so I attended wonderful, well-resourced, integrated public schools that were good enough for me, for kids from the projects, for wealthy kids. We were all in there together and I was able to parlay that into getting a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University, right? So I got to live the benefit of Thurgood Marshall's life of advocacy.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary:

SUPPLEMENTAL ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES

Freedmen's Bureau and Education

What changes did Americans see in people, culture, and politics during Reconstruction? Use this question to frame discussion and inquiry as students examine the impact of education on formerly enslaved African Americans after the Civil War.

Visit the Freedmen's Bureau and Education inquiry kit and guide students in primary source analysis using sources from the Library of Congress. Students can use the analysis tool to document their investigation.

>>Go to inquiry kit

Howard University

HBCUs helped to provide the foundation for opening higher education to freed African Americans. The earliest HBCUs were opened using funds provided by the Freedmen's Bureau.

Have students analyze historical photos from 1867 and 1942 of students at Howard University, where Thurgood Marshall received his law degree. The building in the 1942 photo, Douglass Hall, still remains on Howard's campus.

Use the primary source analysis tool to support students’ investigation.

>>Go to 1867 photo

>>Go to 1942 photo

Civil Rights Cases Leading to Brown v. Board

Civil Rights Cases Leading to Brown v. Board

Thurgood Marshall participated in many court cases that involved civil rights. He founded the NAACP Legal Defense Fund that took cases to help African Americans receive the rights that the Civil War Amendments had provided. One of his most important cases was Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Have students use the Equality by Law interactive timeline and graphic organizer to review other cases Marshall argued, which prepared him for his work on the Brown case and his fight for equal education.

>>Go to timeline

The Road to Equal Education: From HBCUs to Brown v. Board

The Road to Equal Education: From HBCUs to Brown v. Board

Objective

Essential Questions

Thinking Questions

Video Transcript

Video Transcript

Vocabulary

SUPPLEMENTAL ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES

Freedmen's Bureau and Education

Howard University

Civil Rights Cases Leading to Brown v. Board

Career Connections

STANDARDS

College, Career, and Civil Life (C3) Standards

Maryland State Standards