United States, Civil Rights, General, Educational Law & Legislation, Legal History, African-American Studies, Civil Rights & Liberties, Oliver Brown, Topeka, Segregation, Race discrimination 

Landmark law cases & American society 

"This new study of Brown - the title for a group of cases drawn from Kansas, Virginia, South Carolina, Delaware, and the District of Columbia - offers an insightful and original overview designed expressly for students and general readers. It is concise, up-to-date, highly readable, and very teachable." "The book traces the lengthy court litigations, highlighting the pivotal role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and including incisive portraits of key players, including co-plaintiff Oliver Brown, newly appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren, NAACP lawyer and future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, and Justice Felix Frankfurter, who recognized the crucial importance of a unanimous court decision and helped produce it. The authors simply but powerfully narrate the obstacles these individuals faced and the opportunities they grasped and clearly show that there was much more at stake than educational rights. Brown not only changed the national equation of race and caste - it also changed our view of the Court's role in American life."--Jacket. 

Content:
"A people apart" -- "Separate and unequal": an American apartheid at the dawn of an American century -- The NAACP in the interwar years: the struggle renewed -- From scientific racism to uneasy egalitarianism: one nation's troubled odyssey -- Setting the stage -- Arguing the case -- Anatomy of a decision -- Brown II: "all deliberate speed" -- From target to icon: Brown and the role of courts in American life -- Epilogue. Brown and race: the divided legacy. 

Includes bibliographical references and index.