Interpretations of Segregation Under the 14th Amendment
Text Version

[Visual Description - image of Justice Earl Warren, an excerpt from the 14th Amendment, and Justice James Brown] Let’s compare the two justices’ points of view on segregation and the 14th Amendment.

[Visual Description - image of Justice James Brown] In the Plessy v. Ferguson opinion, Justice Brown stated that the “commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either” was not the purpose of the 14th Amendment.

In other words, he believed that the 14th Amendment was not intended end social segregation because there are no harmful effects.

[Visual Description - image of Justice Earl Warren] In writing the opinion for Brown v. Board of Education, Justice Warrenstated, “To separate them [children in grade and high schools] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.”