Brown v School board PDF

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Short paper on brown v school board. This was done for my forensic psychology course....

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Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Frederick D. Newcomb

The doctrine of Separate but Equal established in 1896 by the Supreme Court declared that the 14th amendment only applied to political and civil rights, such as voting and jury service, not social rights. (History Channel, 2021) This doctrine would be a complete failure due to the facilities, materials and education for all black schools not being on par with that of all white schools. This issue was addressed when the NAACP convinced families from Topeka Kansas to take part in a lawsuit calling in to question the constitutionality of segregated schools. Brown won his case with a unanimous, 9 to 0, decision from the supreme court. (The Learning Network, 2012) Based on the ruling in this case, I would say that the supreme court had a vested interest in restructuring societal norms. In creating a fair and equal society for all under the rights guaranteed to us by the U.S. Constitution. The decision of the Supreme Court to desegregate schools in a time when segregation was a social norm had a ripple effect. It was one of the acts that paved the way for the mainstream civil rights movement of the 1960’s which slowly ended segregation in other facets of society. The Supreme Court’s decision was the catalyst, the spark that started the wildfire that would be the Civil Rights movement and the equal, fair treatment of all people under the Constitution, regardless of race. The law affects society by being or attempting to be a guideline for how society should act and behave. What is right and wrong, regarding society, is a moral dilemma more so than a

legal one. If Law outlines how society should behave, society can in turn, change or effect new laws that address a moral issue between the law and society. For instance, Miranda v Arizona (1966) which ruled that detained criminal suspects must be duly advised, by police, of their constitutional rights to an attorney and against self-incrimination. Society has the power to petition the Supreme Court to alter current laws so that they are more socially and civilly just, or even produce new laws that are in the best interest of the people. When it comes to a forensic psychologist’s stance on this case, I believe that they would be in favor of the known outcome. I do not see any reason why a forensic psychologist would stand in opposition to the ruling of Brown v. Board. Their job would be to make a recommendation based on the best interest of the individual. However, they can not and must not overlook the bigger picture. He would have to consider how the current education system was functioning, how society was perpetrating segregation in general, as well as chances of improvement if nothing changed. Do the overall potential benefits outweigh the immediate individual risks? In the broader picture that is a fair and free society, desegregation of schools was only a steppingstone, but a very necessary one. I believe that a forensic psychologist would have been able to see this and been in favor of the ruling as it stands....