What Does The Brown Decision Mean Today?

The Tangled Legacy of the 1954 Supreme Court Ruling

Presented by Dr. Steve O’Neill, Furman University 

Dr. Steve O’Neill is a professor of history at Furman University, whose research focuses on the history of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina. The 1954 Supreme Court Case,  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, outlawed segregation in the nation’s schools, but did the ruling require racial integration or merely prohibit laws that mandated separate schools, leaving in place segregation caused by housing patterns and existing attendance zones?  Dozens of federal court cases defined the meaning of the Brown decision on the ground over the next seventy years. This presentation will examine the tangled legacy of the Brown decision, emphasizing the Ganaway v. Charleston County School District case and the State of South Carolina decision in 1992.

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