May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education

Thurgood Marshall in front of the Supreme Court Building, 1954

May 17, 1954: In a unanimous 9-0 vote, the Supreme Court of the United States decides, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation in public schools -- from kindergarten all the way up to State universities -- is unconstitutional.

Hail the wise men:

* Earl Warren, 63, from Oakland, California, the Chief Justice, formerly his State's Governor and Attorney General, and the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President in 1948. Appointed by the current President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican.

* Hugo Black, 68, from from Ashland, Alabama, formerly a Democratic U.S. Senator from his State. His was the most surprising vote of all: He was not only a Southerner, but a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Serving on the Court from 1937 until his death in 1971, his decisions seemed to be an effort to make up for his KKK membership. Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat.

* Stanley F. Reed, 69, from Minerva, Kentucky, formerly U.S. Solicitor General under FDR, who appointed him to the Supreme Court. Another Southerner who turned his back on white supremacy.

* Felix Frankfurter, 71, born in Vienna, Austria, but grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He had previously been among the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union, and an adviser to FDR and his Administration. FDR appointed him, as well.

* William O. Douglas, 55, from Yakima, Washington, formerly Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He remains the longest-serving Justice in the Court's history, 36 years from 1939 to 1975. The current longest-serving Justice, Clarence Thomas, would have to serve until late 2027 to surpass him. Another FDR appointee.

* Robert H. Jackson, 62, from Frewsburg, Western New York, formerly U.S. Attorney General and Solicitor General, having succeeded Reed in that latter office. Another FDR appointee. He died only 5 months later, on October 9, 1954.

* Harold H. Burton, 65, from Boston, formerly U.S. Senator from Ohio and Mayor of Cleveland. FDR crossed Party lines to appoint Burton, a Republican, to the Court.

* Thomas C. Clark, 54, from Dallas, another former Attorney General under FDR. Another Southerner voting to strike down segregation. Appointed by President Harry S Truman, a Democrat.

* Sherman Minton, 64, from Georgetown, Indiana, formerly U.S. Senator from his State. Appointed by Truman.

The full name of the case was Oliver Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The named plaintiff, Oliver Brown, was a welder working for a railroad, and an assistant pastor. His daughter, Linda Carol Brown, was in the 3rd grade, and had to walk 6 blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, an all-black school, 1 mile away. Sumner Elementary School, all-white, was just 7 blocks away -- 1 block longer than the walk to the bus.

Linda Brown

(Ironically, the all-black school was named for James Monroe, a President who had been a slaveholder; while the all-white school was named for Charles Sumner, who had been the U.S. Senate's leading abolitionist.)

Thurgood Marshall argued the case for the plaintiffs, as the general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The ruling overturned the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which ruled that "separate but equal" facilities be provided in public places. In Brown v. Board, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Marshall had been hired by the NAACP's first special counsel, Charles Hamilton Houston. His strategy was to attack segregation by legally forcing the South's hand on the "separate but equal" doctrine. He orchestrated a campaign to force Southern districts to build facilities for blacks equal to those for whites, or to integrate their facilities. He focused on law schools because, at the time, mostly males attended them. He believed this would obviate the fears whites expressed that integrated schools would lead to interracial dating and marriage.

In the 1938 case of Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, Houston argued that it was unconstitutional for Missouri to exclude blacks from the State's university law school when, under the "separate but equal" provision, no comparable facility for blacks existed within the State.

In other words, he put Missouri in a corner: Either spend the money to build a separate all-black law school, or compromise your principle of bigotry and take the cheaper option of integrating the law school you already have. They chose the latter. For this reason, Houston became known, if prematurely, as "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow." Sadly, he died in 1950, only 54 years old, from a heart attack, and did not live to see Brown v. Board, or the later gains of the Civil Rights Movement. Had he lived long enough to see Marshall on the Supreme Court, he would have been 72.

Oliver Brown died of a heart attack in 1961, only 42 years old. Linda Carol Brown grew up to become a teacher and a civil rights advocate, and lived until 2018. Douglas was the last of the 9 Brown Justices to still be serving, in 1975; while Reed was the last survivor of those Justices, dying in 1980, 74 days after Douglas. Marshall lived until 1993.

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May 17, 1954 was a Monday. It was the off-season for the NFL, and the NBA and the NHL had already completed their seasons. And Monday is often a travel day in Major League Baseball. As a result, only 3 games were played that day, and none of them involved the New York teams:

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-0 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Joe Presko pitched a 7-hit shutout, outpitching Robin Roberts.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-6 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Briggs (later Tiger) Stadium in Detroit.