“With All Deliberate Speed”

Background Information & Discussion Guide

Linda Brown, age 7“Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group...Any language in contrary to this finding is rejected. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” —Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

ALLUSIONS found in the poem1 2. Brown v. Board of Ed.

1. “With All Deliberate Speed”

The Brown decision declared the system of legal segregation unconstitutional. But the Court ordered only that the states end segregation with “all deliberate speed.” This vagueness about how to enforce the ruling gave segregationists the opportunity to organize resistance.

Although many whites welcomed the Brown decision, a large number considered it an assault on their way of life. Segregationists played on the fears and prejudices of their communities and launched a militant campaign of defiance and resistance.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/6-legacy/deliberate-speed.html

de·lib·er·ate  (d-lbr-t)adj.1. Done with or marked by full consciousness of the nature and effects; intentional: mistook the oversight for a deliberate insult.

2. Arising from or marked by careful consideration: a deliberate decision. See Synonyms at voluntary.

3. Unhurried in action, movement, or manner, as if trying to avoid error: moved at a deliberate pace. See Synonyms at slow.

2. Brown v. Board of EducationBrown v. Board of Education (1954), now

acknowledged as one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the nascent civil rights movement into a full revolution.In 1954, large portions of the United States had racially segregated schools, made legal by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which held that segregated public facilities were constitutional so long as the black and white facilities were equal to each other. However, by the mid-twentieth century, civil rights groups set up legal and political, challenges to racial segregation. In the early 1950s, NAACP lawyers brought class action lawsuits on behalf of black schoolchildren and their families in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware, seeking court orders to compel school districts to let black students attend white public schools.

One of these class actions, Brown v. Board of Education was filed against the Topeka, Kansas school board by representative-plaintiff Oliver Brown, parent of one of the children denied access to Topeka's white schools. Brown claimed that Topeka's racial segregation violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause because the city's black and white schools were not equal to each other and never could be. The federal district court dismissed his claim, ruling that the segregated public schools were "substantially" equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine. Brown appealed to the Supreme Court, which consolidated and then reviewed all the school segregation actions together. Thurgood Marshall, who would in 1967 be appointed the first black justice of the Court, was chief counsel for the plaintiffs.

Thanks to the astute leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court spoke in a unanimous decision written by Warren himself. The decision held that racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Court noted that Congress, when drafting the Fourteenth Amendment in the 1860s, did not expressly intend to require integration of public schools. On the other hand, that Amendment did not prohibit integration. In any case, the Court asserted that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal education today. Public education in the 20th century, said the Court, had become an essential component of a citizen's public life, forming the basis of democratic citizenship, normal socialization, and professional training. In this context, any child denied a good education would be unlikely to succeed in life. Where a state, therefore, has undertaken to provide universal education, such education becomes a right that must be afforded equally to both blacks and whites.

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/brown_v__board_of_education.htm

3 Linda Brown

4 Men in black robes

Linda Brown – see the back of your poemhttp://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/innovators/brown.html

US Supreme Courthttp://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/justices.html

Men in white robes5

IRONY in the poem LINE 7: (No Lindas Allowed) LINES 13-15: “…when Linda finds a new

home in middle school, the black robes figure it’s time to open a few elementary windows, air the place out, so no more separate tomfoolery can ever be equal.”

Last Stanza: “But twenty-five years later, Linda Brown Smith realizes new winds are still not welcome everywhere, so why not take the windows out altogether.”

The title itself: “With All Deliberate Speed”

SYMBOLS in the poem Railroad switching year – danger; poverty; risk Monroe Elementary School -- poverty; stagnation;

shame Sumner Elementary School -- wealth; promise;

integrity Rainbow – opportunity; promise Black robes -- education; wisdom; progressiveness White robes -- hatred; bigotry Wind -- innovation; desegregation Windows -- opportunity Rain – equality (for all races combined)

Figurative Language & Use of dialogue HYPERBOLE “…where rumor has it that a kid

can even pack a rainbow in his lunchbox.”

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE “And just above all of Topeka floats a question it seems can only be answered by certain men in black robes. The white robes have already decided.”

DIALOGUE Linda says “Hallelujah” & her folks and neighbors say, “What took so long?”

White School, Paxville, SC (exterior)

White School, Topeka, Kansas (interior)

Paxville “Colored School,” SC (exterior)

“Colored School” (interior)

HISTORY: Brown v. Board of Education

Desegregation of Schools

Case InformationBrown v. Board: Five Communities That Changed America

"Probably no case ever to come before the nation’s highest tribunal affected more directly the minds, hearts, and daily lives of so many Americans…. The decision marked the turning point in the nation’s willingness to face the consequences of centuries of racial discrimination.”¹

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court proclaimed that “in the field of public education ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” This historic ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka overturned the Court’s 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that had sanctioned racial segregation. The landmark case marked the culmination of a decades-long legal battle waged by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and residents of several communities.

Although people often associate the case with Linda Brown, a young girl whose parents sued so that she could attend an all-white school, Brown v. Board actually consisted of five separate cases.² Originating in four states and the District of Columbia, all began as grassroots efforts to either enroll black students in all-white schools or obtain improved facilities for black students. By the fall of 1952, the Supreme Court had accepted the cases independently on appeal and decided to hear arguments collectively. None of these cases would have been possible without individuals who were courageous enough to take a stand against the inequalities of segregation. Today, several of the schools represented in Brown v. Board of Education stand as poignant reminders of the struggle to abolish segregation in public education.¹ Richard Kluger, Simple Justice (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), x.² Brown v. Board consolidated separate cases from four states. A fifth public school segregation case from Washington, DC was considered in the context of Brown, but resulted in a separate opinion. References to Brown in this lesson plan collectively refer to all five cases.

(From top to bottom: Sumner School, Monroe School, John Philip Sousa Junior High School, Robert R. Morton High School, Summerton High School, and Howard High School. National Historic Landmark and National Register photos.)

Images of the young Kennedy family

More images of the Kennedy family

John-John salutes his father during funeral procession. His father was buried on John-John’s 3rd birthday.

Images of the young widow and her children

Video Clips for “American History” Zupruder Film – Kennedy’s Deathhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMBCfxIqP-s

President Kennedy’s Death coverage – Cronkitehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8Q3cqGs7I

Public reaction to Kennedy’s Death in NYChttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_qysmz-d-Y

Kennedy’s funeral

JFK speaking about Civil Rightshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWX_pjyIq-g

More Video Clips - POEM An excerpt from PBS special – Desegratationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTGHLdr-iak&feature=related

An excerpt from a Discovery Channel special – Brown v. Board of Education

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2XHob_nVbw

Separate, But Equal: Rare Images from the Segregated South

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSYNhFyEHoo&feature=related

EXIT PASS – Journal Entry in notebook

Given what you have learned from the story “American History” and the poem “With All Deliberate Speed,” discuss the plight of young women like Elena and Linda by discussing similarities and differences. Then, give an example in your life during which you have faced discrimination (due to race, creed, gender, age, or other).

5-7 sentence minimum; must appear in your notebook under today’s date.