BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

This behind-the-scenes story of the people and events leading to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education's Supreme Court decision shows that even if the justice sought may be simple, getting it is long and complicated.

Rubin begins with the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision and the legally sanctioned lie of “separate but equal” that, along with Jim Crow, established a long era of American apartheid. The hero of the story is, of course, Thurgood Marshall, but Rubin gives other significant players their due, including NAACP attorneys Robert L. Carter and Spotswood Robinson and psychologist Kenneth Clark (all three African-American). Rubin explains that, although known as Brown v. Board of Education, the case applied not just to that of Linda Brown, a black third-grader refused entry to an all-white Topeka, Kansas, school, but to cases involving children in South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. This clear and concise chronicle explains each of these cases, the plaintiffs involved, and how, through the careful strategizing by the NAACP, they culminated in the Brown decision. She includes a complete text of the 14th Amendment and summaries of the cases and notes that the long, painful struggle for integration to ensure equality continues to this day.

A rich, compelling story of the many people who stood up to racial inequality, risking significant danger and hardship for the cause of justice.