Brown V. Board Resource List
The following are just a few of the resources that help us interpret the meaning and enduring legacy of the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision, and the men, women, and children who made it possible. This is not a definitive list. For more information, visit your favorite library or bookstore.
Court Documents
Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
The ruling in this Supreme Court case upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations" for whites and blacks.
Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, 1954
In this milestone decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It overruled the "separate but equal" principle set forth in Plessy v. Ferguson.
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
While Brown v Board determined that separate schools were inherently unequal, in this decision the U.S. Supreme Court announced the duty of school boards to affirmatively eliminate all vestiges of state-imposed segregation, thus extending Brown's prohibition of segregation into a requirement of integration.
Books
All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v Board of Education
by Charles J. Ogletree
Brown v Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents
by Waldo E. Martin, Jr.
Brown v Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy
by James Patterson
Brown v. Board of Education (1954): School Desegregation
by Mark E. Dudley
Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights
by Genna Rae McNeil
Silent Trumpets of Justice: Integration's Failure in Prince Edward County
by Vonita W. Foster and Gerald A. Foster
Simple Justice: The History of Brown v Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality
by Richard Kluger
Standing Before the Shouting Mob: Lenoir Chambers and Virginia’s Massive Resistance to Public School Integration
by Alex Leidholt
They Closed Our Schools
by Robert Smith
Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary
by Juan Williams
Virginia's Massive Resistance
by Benjamin Muse
Wit, Wills, and Walls
by Betty Fisher
For Younger Readers
Linda Brown, You Are Not Alone: The Brown v Board of Education Decision, edited by Joyce Carol Thomas. Of special interest to students in grades 4-8.
Remember: The Journey to School Desegregation by Toni Morrison. Ms. Morrison has collected a treasure chest of 50 archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. Of special interest to students in grades 4-8.
Brown v Board: School Desegregation by Mark E. Dudley. Of special interest to students in grades 6-10.
Media
The Road to Brown, California Newsreel
The American Experience. Simple Justice, PBS Video
