Weighing the Evidence
In this activity, you will examine part of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education as this case challenged racial segregation in public schools and helped advance the rights of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. Before this case, segregation was considered legal under Plessy v. Ferguson, which allowed separate but equal areas. The Brown decision questioned whether separate schools could ever truly be equal.
Your task is to carefully read pages 1–12 of the Court’s opinion and analyze how the justices used evidence to support their decision. As you read, you will identify different types of evidence such as historical examples, legal precedents, and research and analzye how effective each piece of evidence is in proving that segregation is unequal.
To complete this activity, you will:
- Annotate the text by identifying key claims and supporting evidence
- Record and categorize the types of evidence used by the Court
- Weigh the strength of the evidence
- Form your own conclusion about which evidence is most convincing
By the end of this activity, you should have a deeper understanding of how the Supreme Court used evidence to protect the rights of minorities and why this case was a turning point in American history.
