Treasured Moments In Black History: Brown vs. Board of Education
Hope has a strange way of shining. It’s most evident in difficult times. This is Treasured Moments In Black History.
Oliver Brown was a local minister in Topeka, Kansas. He was an African American and worked as a welder in the shops of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway.
In 1951, his third-grade daughter Linda was denied admission into a white elementary school very close to the Brown family home. Oliver joined 13 other families to challenge Kansas school segregation laws, and eventually federal law at the Supreme Court level. Thus, his story became a massive chapter in America’s civil rights history: Brown vs. Board of Education.
At issue were segregation laws that supported separate but equal schools for Blacks and whites. In 8-year-old Linda Brown’s case, this meant she had to board a school bus and ride to Monroe Elementary, a Black school 1 mile away. Meanwhile, her close friends in the neighborhood attended Sumner Elementary, a white school only seven blocks from the Brown family home.
The key holding of the court in Brown vs. Board was that even if segregated Black and white schools were of equal quality and facilities and teachers, segregation by itself was harmful to Black students by promoting a sense of inferiority and negatively affecting the motivation of a child to learn.
That meant, even though schools were equal, the doctrine of separate was unconstitutional.
Oliver L. Brown: a simple father serving faithfully in his local church community as an assistant pastor, just wanting the best for his children in terms of life, liberty, and citizenship.
Treasured Moments in Black History is brought to you by Moody Publishers and their book Kingdom Race Theology by Dr. Tony Evans.
In every generation, God uses ordinary people to accomplish great things!
Treasured Moments in Black History by Moody Radio remembers the people and events in America that have shaped
history and inspired lives. By looking back and highlighting these moments, you will be inspired,
enriched and encouraged in your faith walk to make history for God’s kingdom.
