Nearly half a century ago, the citizens of the United States witnessed a paramount landmark in the fight for racial equality. Linda Brown was a third grade student in one of Kansas" segregated, but equal public schools. Headed by the NAACP, the Browns and other plaintiffs throughout Kansas attempted to de-segregate the public school system. May 17, 1954 will forever be remembered as the day that Chief Justice Warren announced that segregation of public schools is "inherently unequal," and thus violated U.S. constitution. This was the verdict of Brown vs. Board of Education. Prior to 1954, the Plessy vs. Ferguson case allowed for separate but equal school systems for blacks and whites. The ruling of Brown may seem common sense to our present society, however in 1954, nearly sixty percent (60%) of Americans favored the Plessy precedent. Blacks of the time saw the Brown ruling as an inevitable harbinger to racial equality. Intelligent blacks of the time must have figured that America would be an entirely equal country in fifty years. After all, only ninety years ago most blacks in America were enslaved. If blacks could become emancipated and attend school in ninety years, it should not take that much longer to become completely equal. While much has been accomplished, Americans of every persuasion still have many miles to go on the path to racial equality. .
Even though race relations in present day America have much to be desired, relations between blacks and whites are unfathomably superior to those of 1954. All aspects of racial equality have been improved, however few issues have made a more drastic improvement than education. When the Supreme Court ruled that public schools be integrated, violence erupted. The violence reached pinnacle when President Eisenhower was forced to dispatch troops to Arkansas to integrate the local high school. Evidently, these were hard times for blacks in America.
