Brown V. Board Of Education Of Topek Case Study

1

Wayne Clark
AC1308273
C08 American Government
Lesson 8 Writing Assignment
May 17, 2014
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Inequality in this country began when the first African slaves were brought to the North
American Colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco. The American Civil War settled in 1865, would only mark the beginning of equality for African-Americans. It wasn’t until 1954 that the United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, (1954), that would render Jim Crow Laws unconstitutional. That decision began an age of Judicial Activism for the
Supreme Court in respect to Stare Decisis, the Mootness Doctrine, and
Marshall along with a team of attorneys developed the strategy to attack the “equal” part of the Jim Crow Laws and established that the amenities provided for the black students were not equal under the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause. The Court in its unanimous decision agreed with the petitioner, overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, and ruled segregation unconstitutional once and for all.
The Supreme Court made many strides in coming to its opinion, the justices used the philosophy of statutory construction in interpreting the 14th amendment, viewed the constitution as a living document with the original values that do in fact change as society changes. This type of philosophy can be seen with the court’s decision to overturn precedent that was interpreted in a time where segregation was socially acceptable. Therefore, Brown v. Board of Education will always be known as the case that changed American history for decades to come.

3

Special Interest in American Politics

An interest group is an organization whose members share common concerns, and try to influence government policies that impact those concerns trough the philosophy of Pluralism.
Elected officials frequently complain about the influence of "special interests" on
The AFA has lobbied congress just as any other special interest group in politics. It also owns several radio stations to convey its rightwinged views about homosexuality, abortion, and Christianity.
I dislike the American Family Association for their continued discrimination of LGBT people, its opposition to equality for same-sex couples, and for their conservative values which I do not support. However, I do respect the AFA in its right to hold the values that it does.
I would like to bring to light that the Human Rights Campaign has many corporate members including Bank of America, Apple, Citi Group and Microsoft to name a few contrary to
AFA’s efforts against it. One thing that I did find very alarming of the AFA was its effort to influence the President of Uganda to continue with the execution of the death penalty imposed on a group of convicted homosexuals. This ideology is repulsive from such an organization that holds the word of God to heart and yet it supports the taking of another human beings