Janise Macanas - Comments on Brown v. Board of Education

In 1954, racial segregation in public schools was commonplace across America. In Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. Linda Brown’s experience was illustrative of the challenge faced by minorities in 1950’s America. Linda Brown underwent great inconvenience, if not outright hardship, merely to get that which white Americans took for granted. At the Brown v. Board of Education hearings, when asked for a definition of "equal" by Justice Frankfurter, Thurgood Marshall replied, "Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place."

Sadly, "separate but equal" was a state of mind and not just a backward school policy. When the Supreme Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" it accomplished more than the forced desegregation of public schools in 21 states. Brown legitimized the rejection of racial prejudice in America. The civil rights movement, women’s movement, and successive struggles for social equality draw strength and legitimacy from Brown’s decision. As both a woman and a minority I feel I owe Chief Justice Warren’s court a great debt for the opportunities that my children and I enjoy in modern America.

Janise Macanas is an Assistant Attorney General at the Criminal Division of the Attorney General's Office.

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