Segregation's full effect considered

in Supreme Court ruling (5/17/54)

Posted: Tuesday, March 16, 2004
By Topeka State Journal
Washington - Chief Justice Warren in reading Monday's Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in
schools, said that the decision cannot turn on a mere comparison of the "tangible" factors in Negro and white
schools.
"We must look instead to the effect of segregation itself on public education."
In approaching the problem, Warren said, "we cannot turn the clock back to 1868 when the fourteenth
amendment was adopted or even to 1896 when Plessy vs. Ferguson was written.
"We must consider public education in the light of its full development and its place in American life thruout the
nation.
"Only in this way can it be determined if segregation in public schools deprives these plaintiffs (Negroes) of the
equal protection of the laws.
"Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments Compulsory school
attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognization of the importance of
education to our democratic society.
"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the
opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which
must be made available to all on equal terms."
It was at this point in the opinion that Warren said the court believes segregation denies Negro children of equal
educational opportunities.
In the District of Columbia case, Chief Justice Warren said the decision announced in the case of the states also
would apply to Washington but under a different section of the Constitution.
"We hold," Warren said, "that racial segregation in the public schools of the District of Columbia is a denial of
the due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution."
The Fifth Amendment applies to the federal government and Congress makes the laws for this federal district.
As the chief justice noted, the District of Columbia case hinged on the "due process" clause of the Fifth
Amendment rather than the "equal protection clause" of the fourteenth amendment, on which the state cases were
based.
...the court has ruled that the Fifth Amendment applies only to the federal government -- not to the states.
In the District of Columbia case, Warren said:
"Segregation in public education is not reasonably related to any proper governmental objective, and thus it
imposes on Negro children of the district a burden that constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of their liberty in
violation of the due process clause."

Attorney General Brownell, who was in the courtroom and heard the reading of Warren's opinions, said he had no
comment. Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, also in the court room, told newsmen the court had delivered
a "great and statesman-like decision."