All
Deliberate Speed?
After
the decision, how quickly should schools be
desegregated?
How quickly were schools desegregated? |
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The decision in
Brown v. Board of Education came in two parts. First, the
justices considered whether segregation was constitutional.
The Brown I decision determined that it was not, but there
still remained the tricky question about how to end segregation.
On this question, the Court heard arguments during the following
term.
In
1955, the Supreme Court of the United States determined
that segregation should be ended as soon as possible, but
the Court also recognized that it would be difficult for
communities to deal with the change and that there were
many institutional, political, and social circumstances
to be worked out. The Court struggled with how to phrase
the order to desegregate schools and what kind of time
frames should be attached to the order. The NAACP advocated
for schools to be desegregated "forthwith," which
implies a quick timetable. However, Justice Warren adopted
the advice of Justice Frankfurter and chose other language.
Read
Justice Frankfurter's notes on this issue and answer the
questions that follow.
- On
page two of the typed notes, Justice Frankfurter writes
his original recommendation for how quickly desegregation
should occur. What does he say? (This is the typed version,
not the handwritten version.)
- Justice
Frankfurter then crosses out point 5 and changes point
6 to point 5. He also changes his recommendation for how
quickly desegregation should occur. How does he alter
his recommendation? (This is the handwritten note.)
- Why
do you suppose Justice Frankfurter changed his mind? Think
about what actions might be involved in desegregating
schools at the local level.
- What
do Justice Frankfurter's notes tell you about how Supreme
Court decisions are written?
- The
Court's recommendation that schools should desegregate
"with all deliberate speed" had enormous consequences
for the speed of desegregation.
Read
a letter from Roy Wilkins to President Kennedy (page 14 of 15 on the website that opens) regarding
desegregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia. What does
the letter tell you about how quickly desegregation occurred?
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