Brown v Board React Post:

 

Today, we got to sit in on a Mock Trial of Brown v Board. This historical court case was a landmark case of the Supreme Court that declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.  When a young black girl was denied entry to an all-white public school near her home in Topeka, Kansas, because it was not her “segregated school,” her parents, along with a few other parents, took matters into their own hands and sued the local school district. 

The Plessy v Ferguson “separate but equal” doctrine was overruled by this case because it was determined that the white and black separate facilities were, in fact, not equal. After this, the Supreme Court declared that schools across the United States had to be desegregated. 

Today in the courtroom, we heard arguments from both Brown and the Board, and there were many valid points made by both parties. 

One impactful point that came from Brown’s party was made by Alsyon. She, along with her other teammates, made a great argument, but something that stood out the most was her part of the speech where she mentioned the fact that there were many other cases in the past before this case that argued for similar and the exact things that this case argued. She highlighted the fact that the argument for equal opportunities and true equality for African Americans has been argued for so long and that this one case was not a random case that came out of the blue.

During this period, before and after, African Americans faced many hardships, and many of those stemmed from systematic racism and inequality that needed to be addressed. Not only was it a continuing factor in educational facilities for African Americans, but it was also a continuing factor in everyday life for African Americans, and ruling in favor of Brown could become a start to something more positive. Arguing with each school and individual school board for an equal education for all should not have been a large problem at that time. 

But when it came to the board, many arguments were worded so well that you could change your mind about anything you first believed when you stepped into the courtroom that day.

The team that had to argue for the board made an immense amount of points that Brown had not taken into account when they made their decisions. 

While each person had great arguments, Cam's argument stood out the most to me because he brought up the mental well-being of the little black children who would have to face the white supremacists and racists during desegregation. Adults and teenagers can handle racism and the potential of physical endangerment much more and much more easily than a young child could. 

Integrating a school could take a major toll on the mental and physical health of the children, that is a major argument as to why it may be better off if the students went to their own segregated schools. Another major point he brought up was the fact that African American students and White students were on different levels education-wise, and it would not be beneficial to place them in the same classroom if half of the class was more advanced than the other. 

Although I did not agree with every point that was made by each person, there were still a lot of points that were made that made me think and helped me learn more about the period that I had not known before. This may have been my favorite mock trial to date!