Brown V. Board of ed

            
            
             What arguments and/or strategies finally worked in the struggle for desegregation? Consider legal, socio-psychological, and political aspects.
             The Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas Supreme Court case of 1954 is important cases in United States History. Fought long and hard by the NAACP, this land mark case ended segregation in schools, reversing the Plessy V. Ferguson case of 1896. Argued by Thurgood Marshall, this case stands as a defining moment in civil rights history, and who's legal, political, and socio-psychological effects are still felt today.
             Prior to the Plessy V. Ferguson case, blacks felt that segregation in education was unjust, and often petitions and suits were filled against states. One of the most interesting was the Roberts V. City of Boston petition of 1849. Much like the Brown case years to come, Benjamin Roberts, a black activist, filled a suit on behalf of his five year old daughter, against the city of Boston challenging its practice of segregated schools. Although he would eventually loose his suit, lawyer Charles Sumner who argued the case for him, made strong legal statements. He says "In equality declared by our fathers in 1776, and made the fundamental law of Massachusetts in 1780, was Equality before the law". He goes on to say "Here the facts are plain and unanswerable, showing a palpable violation of Equality. The black and white are not equal before the law.
             Although equality in education was an important issue fore blacks, there was a much bigger social problem going on, lynching. Lynching was all too common, especially in the south. Ida B. Wells, an editor, author, and black activist, reported on tens of thousands of lynching in the south. In nearly every case, no person(s) were charged, our punishment served. Many of these men and women were killed for exercising their right to vote. In her book, Red Record, Wells writes, "The southern white man would not consider that the Negro had any right which a white man was bound to respect," Towards the end of the passage, she continues "We plead not for the colored people alone, but for all the victims of the terrible injustice which puts men and women to death without form of law.