Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Case Study

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka - Case Study Example They went to court based on the principle in the Fourteenth Amendment that offered equal protection to all American citizens (Patterson, 2002). In many prior instances, the court denied relief on the ground of the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. The case of Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in a ruling that offered for separation of whites and blacks in the public sphere while offering equal facilities and opportunities to all. In Brown v. Topeka, the plaintiffs argued against the principle of segregated and equal protection. They argued that the segregation of schools could never allow for any equality and reduced the protection due to one group of people. The legal issues in the case of Brown v. Board of Education were with regard to the rights of all people as provided for all people under the 14th Amendment. Another legal issue under the determination of the court was whether the principles of Plessy v. Ferguson are applicable to Brown v. Board of Education. The Fourteenth Amendment asserts that all persons are under the equal protection of the law (Sitkoff, 2008). This amendment effectively entails that, all persons in the United States regardless of color, race or creed, deserve equality of protection and privilege in all aspects of American public life. The intention of the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson was to legalize segregation in public transport. The issue of equality arises in that; provision of equality may be possible in public transport. In the realm of education, it would be hard to maintain equality since it is inevitable that skewed funding would occur against some of the segregated schools. Another aspect of the US Co nstitution is that it provided freedom of choice to any person to make use of any public facilities and institutions of their choice. The application of the rule in Plessy v.  Ferguson was erroneous in that it restricts access to any American to public facilities based on skin color (Miller, 2004).