Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954)
Brown was argued twice: once in 1952, then again in 1953 after Chief Justice Vinson died and was succeeded by Chief Justice Earl Warren. In 1952, the Respondent's attorney, John Davis argued the following:
- Congress established segregated schools in the District of Columbia (which is under federal control) before, during and after ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, demonstrating those who initiated the Amendment did not intend it to prohibit segregation. Further, of the 30 states that had ratified the Amendment when it was adopted in 1868, 23 maintained segregated schools.
- The issue of desegregation should be a political question (left to Congress), not a judicial one.
- The Court's own precedents supported the "separate but equal" doctrine many times since the Plessy v. Ferguson, (1896) decision. (Davis cited: "...Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education, Gong Lum v. Rice, Berea College v. Kentucky, Sipuel v. Board of Regents, Gaines v. Canada, Sweatt v. Painter, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma, and there may be others for all I know, certainly this Court has spoken in the most clear and unmistakable terms to the effect that this segregation is not unlawful. Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education, Gong Lum v. Rice, Berea College v. Kentucky, Sipuel v. Board of Regents, Gaines v. Canada, Sweatt v. Painter, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma, and there may be others for all I know, certainly this Court has spoken in the most clear and unmistakable terms to the effect that this segregation is not unlawful.")
- Davis claimed the Clark's doll test was unscientific, and discussed a replication of their study conducted by another expert witness, identified only as Trager, who conducted the test on Philadelphia school children in integrated schools and found their preference for the white doll and belief that the African-American doll was bad was more extreme than the opinions of the Southern, segregated children.
- Davis quoted the opinion of W. E. B. Dubois, an African-American intellectual who opposed desegregation: "It is difficult to think of anything more important for the development of a people than proper training for their children; and yet I have repeatedly seen wise and loving colored parents take infinite pains to force their little children into schools where the white children, white teachers, and white parents despised and resented the dark child, make mock of it, neglected or bullied it, and literally rendered its life a living hell. Such parents want their children to "fight" this thing out-but, dear God, at what a cost!"
He goes on:
"We shall get a finer, better balance of spirit; an infinitely more capable and rounded personality by putting children in schools where they are wanted, and where they are happy and inspired, than in thrusting them into hells where they are ridiculed and hated."
- Parents should have an opportunity to be consulted and determine whether they wanted their children in an integrated school.
In 1953, Davis added the following arguments:
- Some southern school districts (for example, Clarendon, SC) were predominantly black and enjoyed newer schools and better facilities than the minority white population.
- Integration would create a situation in that district where the classes were integrated 27:3, with the majority African-American, which he didn't believe would be useful to anyone.
- Race and racial tensions had existed for "some 60 centuries," an argument he used to deny segregation was caused by, or reinforced, racism.
- Individual states and school boards should be allowed to determine for themselves whether to integrate, because they had a better understanding of community-level issues.
