Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954): List 3

In 1951, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recruited 13 parents to file a class action suit on behalf of their children. The named plaintiff, Oliver Brown, was the father of a third grader who, denied admission to a neighborhood school because of his race, was forced to walk six blocks to take a bus to a black school. On reviewing the District Court's ruling based on the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decided that segregated public schools were unequal and unconstitutional. This led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. These words are from the unanimous opinion written by Earl Warren. Read the full text here.

This list covers vocabulary in the footnotes to the decision.
10 words 7 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. enjoin
    issue an injunction
    They brought this action in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas to enjoin enforcement of a Kansas statute which permits, but does not require, cities of more than 15,000 population to maintain separate school facilities for Negro and white students.
  2. pursuant
    in conformance to or agreement with
    Pursuant to that authority, the Topeka Board of Education elected to establish segregated elementary schools.
  3. statutory
    relating to or created by regulations
    They brought this action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina to enjoin enforcement of provisions in the state constitution and statutory code which require the segregation of Negroes and whites in public schools.
  4. diligence
    a hard-working effort
    The court found the Negro school inferior in physical plant, curricula, and transportation, and ordered the defendants forthwith to provide substantially equal curricula and transportation and to "proceed with all reasonable diligence and dispatch to remove" the inequality in physical plant.
  5. remand
    refer a matter or legal case back to another authority
    This Court vacated the District Court's judgment and remanded the case for the purpose of obtaining the court's views on a report filed by the defendants concerning the progress made in the equalization program.
  6. rectify
    set straight or right
    On remand, the District Court found that substantial equality had been achieved except for buildings and that the defendants were proceeding to rectify this inequality as well.
  7. intimate
    imply as a possibility
    The Chancellor's decree was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Delaware, which intimated, however, that the defendants might be able to obtain a modification of the decree after equalization of the Negro and white schools had been accomplished.
  8. writ
    a legal document issued by a court or judicial officer
    The defendants, contending only that the Delaware courts had erred in ordering the immediate admission of the Negro plaintiffs to the white schools, applied to this Court for certiorari. The writ was granted, 344 U.S. 891.
  9. ordain
    order by virtue of superior authority; decree
    It ordains that no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
  10. injunction
    a judicial remedy to prohibit a party from doing something
    In the Cummin case, Negro taxpayers sought an injunction requiring the defendant school board to discontinue the operation of a high school for white children until the board resumed operation of a high school for Negro children.
Created on Tue Jun 03 14:34:26 EDT 2025 (updated Tue Jun 03 14:42:16 EDT 2025)

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