The Five Cases

The Brown v. Board decision didn't stem from a single case, rather it was a ruling for a bundling of cases that all challenged racial segregation in public schools. The cases were filed in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Virginia, South Carolina and Kansas. They had a variety of circumstances from single-room shacks labeled 'schools,' to student-led strikes with more than 400 participants, and had more than 200 total plaintiffs.

The challenge to end racial segregation in public schools across the country remained a unifying theme, so the supreme court decided to bundle the cases and issue a single ruling on what was a national issue, not just a southern one.

Read more about each of the specific cases below.

 

• 

  Belton (Bulah) v. Gebhart

  Two cases of inequality, Belton v. Gebhart, and Bulah v. Gebhart argued by Louis Redding, Delaware's first African American attorney.

• 

  Bolling v. Sharpe

  John Phillip Sousa Junior High School in Washington D.C. refused to admit 11 African Americans despite having several empty classrooms.

• 

  Brown v. Board of Education

  Started by the NAACP, 13 parents in Topeka, KS. enrolled their children in white schools but were refused.

• 

  Briggs v. Elliott

  When their petition for buses was ignored, 20 parents in South Carolina filed suit to challenge segregation itself.

• 

  Davis v. County School Board

  Following a 400-student strike in Farmville, VA, the NAACP agreed to help them file suit against segregation itself.