This document is the Supreme Court's ruling in
Brown v.
Board of Education from May 17, 1954. It also serves as the opinion in the court case
Davis v.
County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia because
Davis was one of five cases that the Supreme Court heard together and consolidated into
Brown v.
Board.
Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case. The Court found that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools violated the 14th Amendment. The decision marked the end of the "separate but equal" precedent set by the Supreme Court nearly 60 years earlier in
Plessy v. Ferguson.
Although commonly known as
Brown v.
Board, the five cases that the Supreme Court heard collectively (from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware) were:
- Oliver Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al.
- Harry Briggs, Jr., et al. v. R.W. Elliott, et al.
- Dorothy E. Davis et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, et al.
- Spottswood Thomas Bolling et al. v. C. Melvin Sharpe et al.
- Francis B. Gebhart et al. v. Ethel Louise Belton et al.
This document outlines the duty of the lower courts to oversee the implementation of the 1954 decision in
Brown. Arguments were to be heard during the following Supreme Court term to determine exactly how it would be imposed. Just over one year later, on May 31, 1955, Warren read the Court's unanimous decision, now referred to as
Brown II, instructing the states to begin desegregation plans "with all deliberate speed."
This primary source comes from the Records of District Courts of the United States.
National Archives Identifier:
279114Full Citation: Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1955 filed in Dorothy E. Davis, et al. versus County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Civil Action No. 1333; 5/17/1954; Dorothy E. Davis, et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County et al.; Civil Case Files, 1938 - 12/31/1998; Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives at Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/opinion-dorothy-davis, April 25, 2024]