From Jessica McElrath,
Your Guide to African-American History.
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In Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court made the landmark decision to end the doctrine of "separate but equal" in public schools. At the time of the decision, 17 states and the District of Columbia had segregated public schools. During the 1952-1953 Supreme Court term, five cases were combined under the name Brown v. Board of Education. The four other cases were Briggs v. Elliot, Belton v. Gebhart, Bulah v. Gebhart, and Davis v. the County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia.

Briggs v. Elliot

In Briggs v. Elliot, the plaintiffs, Harry Briggs and nineteen other parents, sued R.W. Elliot, the president of the Clarendon County school board in South Carolina. Even though buses were available to white schools, African American students walked miles to school on foot. The plaintiffs requested that the county provide buses for the black students. After the petition was ignored, they filed a lawsuit which challenged segregation in schools.

Reverend J.A. DeLaine, a school principal, recruited the plaintiffs and the help of the NAACP. Thrugood Marshall and Harold Boulware served as counsel for the case. In May 1951, the case was heard before a three-judge panel in a U.S. District Court. They argued that segregation caused substantial psychological damage, but the court ruled two to one against them, with Judge Julius Waring dissenting. Instead, the court ordered the board to equalize the schools. The case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart

Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart were two separate Delaware cases that focused on the inequality of black and white schools. Belton v. Gebhart was brought by Claymont parents who were required to send their children to a decaying segregated high school outside of their community. Bulah v. Gebhart was brought by Sarah Bulah, who had requested that the Delaware Department of Public Instruction provide bus transportation for the black students in Hockessin. Her request was denied.

Upon the instruction of a local attorney, the parents in both cases petitioned their local schools for admittance of their children to the white schools; nevertheless, they were denied admission. In 1951, the cases were filed and heard by the Delaware Court of Chancery. The Chancellor ruled that the schools had violated the equal protection clause and ordered the admission of eleven African American children. The Board of Education appealed the decision.

Davis v. the School Board of Prince Edward County

In Davis v. the School Board of Prince Edward County, inequality was also at issue. In Prince Edward County, Virginia, the inequality in the educational system had been a problem since after the Civil War. Not only were the facilities for black students deemed inadequate due to the drafty holes in the floor and heating problems but also African American teachers were paid less then white teachers. In an effort to remedy the inadequate facilities and to ward off a potential legal challenge by the NAACP, Robert Russa Moton High School was built for African American students in 1939.

Despite the effort, the new school was still inadequate. It lacked a gymnasium, cafeteria, auditorium with seats, and lockers. Additionally, it only had the capacity to accommodate 180 students, and by its second year in existence, there were 219 students enrolled. In the late 1940s, the Board of Education again attempted to remedy the situation, but this time with temporary buildings that became known as "tar paper shacks."

Fed up with the inadequate facilities, on April 23, 1951, students went on strike in protest of the overcrowding, the shacks, and the lack of progress in the plan to build a new high school. With the help of attorney Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson, the students decided to continue the strike until May 7 and to sue for the integration of schools in Prince Edward County. On May 23, a suit was filed in the Federal District Court in Richmond. The court decided in favor of the county. The case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court.