Chapter 10 The Law and Social Change

There are certain issues in Chapter 10 that were very life changing aspects in our life. Social change, is an alteration in social relationships, norms, behavior patterns, values, and attitudes that occur over time. Like in the Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. This case is known for the most honored opinion in the Supreme Court's work. It reflects our lives today, although it may not even be seen as being so important. It seems like everybody forgets about all the things people had to go through to get the social norm the way it is today. In this case, a father of a young black girl, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll his daughter Linda into a white elementary school. Linda had to walk a mile everyday through a railroad yard where cars are shifted from one track to another by means of a system of switches just to get to her black school. There was a white elementary school that was only seven blocks from her house, but because of her race, she couldn't go to the white school. Brown asked the principal to let Linda enroll, but he refused. Brown wasn't about to give up on this, he went to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help. The NAACP were eager to help out Oliver Brown. The NAACP had always wanted to challenge the segregation in public schools so they didn't mind helping Brown and his push to let his daughter into a white school. Over time, the courts made a decision...The Supreme Court struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy for public education, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and required the desegregation of schools across America. This didn't fix everything though. It didn't abolish segregation in other public areas like restrooms, restaurants, and it didn't require desegregation of public schools by a certain time. Today we don't have a problem with segregating schools...it is part of the norm now. Social change has changed many things in our life, mostly things that are for the better and make a difference in our society.

http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html