Brown V. Board of Education Fifty Years Later: What Makes for Greatness in a Legal Opinion?
Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, Vol. 36, 2004
Posted: 12 May 2016
Date Written: 2005
Abstract
The article focuses on some of the purported shortcomings of Brown v. Board of Education. The article establishes a framework for discussing criticisms of this landmark case by means of a brief overview of the Court's reasoning in Brown. After addressing the criticisms, and following a personal reflection on the author's experiences growing up in the Jim Crow South, the article concludes that Brown v. Board of Education was rightly decided for the right reasons. Together with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution itself, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, the Brown decision deserves its revered standing among the pantheon of essential writings that are fairly to be regarded as defining the essence of the American spirit.
Keywords: Brown v. Board of Education, Equal Protection, Education, Integration, Segreagation, Discrimination
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