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Seventy years ago this month, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling that racial segregation in the nation's public schools was unconstitutional. The unanimous decision partially overruled the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that had permitted segregated, "separate but equal" public facilities for nearly six decades. The ruling was a major victory for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), its chief counsel and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and the Civil Rights Movement's struggle to achieve racial equality in the United States.
The attorneys for Oliver Brown and his daughter Linda—George E.C. Hayes (Bolling v. Sharpe), Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit—celebrate on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court following the historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling on May 17, 1954.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case originated in 1951 when the Topeka, Kansas public school system refused to allow Oliver Brown's daughter Linda attend the public school near her home because she was Black. The school close to the Brown's home was for White students only as permitted by the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which allowed states to segregate public schools as long as they provided separate but equal facilities for Black students. Brown challenged the Topeka school board's decision because the school for Black pupils required his daughter to walk a distance before taking a long bus ride to a school 21 city blocks from her home. Brown and other Black families in Topeka, KS, filed a class-action lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education. On August 3, 1951, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled against Brown, finding that Topeka's separate but equal public schools were constitutional. The district court found that although segregated schools may have a detrimental impact on Black students, the school buildings, curricula, and transportation for White and Black students in Topeka were of equal quality. Therefore, there was no justification to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson and end segregated public schooling in Kansas.
Brown appealed the decision supported by the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall, its then chief counsel, to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was combined with four other similar cases heard by courts in South Carolina (Briggs v. Elliot), Virginia (Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County), Delaware (Belton v. Gebart). and Washington, DC, (Bolling v. Sharpe). The Brown v. Board of Education case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in December 1952. In an effort to encourage the justices to reach a unanimous decision on the case and bring an end to consitutionally-protected segregation, Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter asked that the case be argued again in December 1953. Chief Justice Earl Warren supported Frankfurter, arguing that a unanimous decision ending segregation and overturning Plessy v. Ferguson was necessary because a divided court would fuel resistance to the ruling in Southern states.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its unanimous 9–0 Brown v. Board of Education ruling in favor of lead plaintiff Brown and associated families. Chief Justice Warren authored the decision, noting that state-mandated segregation in public schools, "generates a feeling of inferiority as to [black students'] status that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone." As a result, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
The decision was a major victory for the NAACP and the Civil Rights Movement. As the justices anticipated, the ruling faced immediate resistance from segregationists in the southern United States that would take years to overcome. For example, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered the state's Army National Guard to block nine Black students ("The Little Rock Nine") from entering Little Rock Central High School in September 1957. President Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division to the city to escort the students to and from school. Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered in June 1963 after he filed a lawsuit to force the desegregation of schools in Jackson, Mississippi. In Alabama, Governor George Wallace personally blocked two Black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama vowing to support "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" Wallace only backed down when President John F. Kennedy ordered the Alabama National Guard to intervene.
In the 70 years since the historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling, there has been significant progress made in transforming our nation and its schools, but much work still remains. As the U.S. Department of Justice noted in a 2023 blog post commemorating the 69th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, "In 2022, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that nearly 18.5 million students still attend a segregated school today. The Brown anniversary presents an opportunity to take stock of the progress made while redoubling our commitment to this work." The students, parents, and community groups who continue to work to make our nation's schools free from discrimination and provide a safe and welcoming place for all students are visible legacies of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
You can learn more about the U.S. Supreme Court's historic Brown v. Board of Education decision and the people involved using Census Bureau data and records. For example:
Earl Warren (center, seated) was chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court when it unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" accommodations in public schools were unconstitutional in its historic and unanimous May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision.
Photo courtesy of the City of Oklahoma City.
On May 31, 1889, heavy rain led to the collapse of Pennsylvania's South Fork Dam, sending a 3.8 billion gallon debris-filled wall of water down the Conemaugh Valley towards Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
You can learn more about the disaster from Census Bureau data and publicly available Census records the Johnstown Flood webpage.
Included among the victims were machinist William F. Beck, his wife Blanche, and their children Alfred and Roy; telegrapher Mathew Fagan, his wife Mary, and their four children; and nine members of the Fitzharris family.
Preeman J. McClure was born near Bryan County, OK, in September 1864.
McClure became a successful farmer, stockman, Oklahoma Territory politician, and census taker.
After serving in the Oklahoma Territory's legislature, McClure assisted with a special 1896 census of Tobucksy County—present-day Pittsburg County, OK. The Dawes Commission used the count to allocate land to members of the Choctaw American Indian Tribe. Four years later, McClure visited the county's residents again to conduct the 1900 Census.
In November 1906, McClure served as a delegate to the Oklahoma Territory's constitutional convention.
As the Oklahoma Territory moved towards statehood, the Census Bureau conducted a special Census of Oklahoma in 1907, during which it counted 1,414,177 people. The territory's voters approved the state constitution that McClure helped draft on September 17, 1907, and Oklahoma became the nation's 46th state on November 16, 1907.
Preeman McClure died at his home near Broken Bow, OK, in September 1910.
Learn more about McClure and other Census Bureau employees at our Notable Alumni webpages.
On May 1, 1893, President Grover Cleveland opened the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
The 1893 World's Fair showcased Chicago, IL, just 22 years after the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. Between May 1 and October 30, 1893, approximately 27 million fairgoers were awed by a huge variety of exhibits from around the world.
Featured among the U.S. Department of Interior's Census Office exhibit was Herman Hollerith's display of the electric processing and tabulating machines he invented. Fairgoers watched as Census Bureau employees processed 1890 Census data recorded on paper punch cards. The exhibit proved so popular that fair organizers awarded Hollerith a bronze medal.
Three decades later, the Census Bureau earned a gold medal for its exhibit at the Philadelphia World's Fair that opened on May 31, 1926.
During the 1926 Philadelphia World's Fair, the Census Bureau displayed a population clock, maps and tables displaying census data, and the tabulating machines used to count more than 106 million people during the 1920 Census.
Learn more about the innovative processing equipment that the Census Bureau displayed at the 1893 and 1926 World's Fairs at our Hollerith Machine webpage.
Photo courtesy of National Archives