**YOUR CHOICE?**
A WebQuest
USSC: Brown v. Board of Education
Mr.
Mann 
for Business and Law
--H6$--
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I. INTRODUCTION:
You
are about to begin high school, but you and your family have a problem: you are
“environmentally-conscious” and feel it is necessary for you to obey city,
state and federal recycling laws.
However, the school to which you have been assigned (“school x”), either
due to neglect or indifference, consistently violates these laws. Though school x is close to your home (you
can easily walk there), you know it is not nearly as good as “school y.” School y has a policy of obeying the law and
setting a good moral example to the students and the community, but your
problem is that school y is many miles away from your home, you have not been
assigned there, and you have many friends who will be attending school x.
What
do you do? Should you go to the inferior
school that is near to you, or should you try to gain admission at the superior
school, which is far away and where you will be a stranger.
Your
future will in large part be decided by the decision you make. You know y students whose skills and
knowledge are far superior to the students who attend school x. And you have even more evidence: y students
who have graduated have had better and more opportunities, both in employment
and in higher education, than their student x counterparts.
It’s
your life, so only you can decide what to do next....Therefore, you object to
school x’s failure to follow recycling laws as a
violation of your rights under the 8th, 10th, and 14th
Amendments. Your Local Instructional
Supervisor (LIS) tells you that you must attend the school to which you have
been assigned (school x). A friend tells
you that a U.S. Supreme Court Case,
Brown v. Board of Education, deals with issues similar to those you are facing.
What
will you do next…?
II. TASK:
Using
Compulegal, you will research the case of Brown v. Board of Education. You will write report (3-5 pages, typed,
double-spaced) comparing the imaginary scenario above with the real situation
of Brown v. Board of Education. You will also make a short oral presentation (approximately
5 minutes) to the class, including a time for questions and answers.
The
written portion of this assignment is due the day we come back from Spring
Break. The oral presentation part of
this assignment will be scheduled randomly for the first week in May.
II. PROCESS:
1.
In Compulegal, you will now research the case of Brown v. Board of Education.
a.
Review
the facts of
the case
b.
List
them on a sheet of paper.
c.
Examine
the visuals.
d.
Summarize
the main points.
e.
How
did the U.S. Court of Appeals rule? Why
was the U.S
Supreme Court brought into this case by
Brown?
f.
Now go
to the reasoning
page.
g.
Follow
the instructions on this page and submit them.
i.
Review
the precedents and explain why each case cited is a precedent.
ii.
On a
separate sheet of paper, answer the questions posed above each box on this
page.
h.
Next,
you will investigate the actual decision made
by the U.S. Supreme Court.
i.
What
was the Court’s decision?
ii.
Do you
agree or disagree with the Court’s decision?
Explain your answer.
iii.
Does
the Court’s decision set a precedent that you can apply to the imaginary
situation described in the Introduction?
If so, to what extent? If not,
why not?
2.
Now
you will write your paper (3-5 pages in length). In your paper you will:
a.
Summarize
the facts, arguments and decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.
b.
Discuss
the similarities of Brown v. Board of
Education to your case
c.
Discuss
the differences of Brown v. Board of
Education to your case
d.
Discuss
if you think the Superintendency is justified
requiring you to go to school x. Explain
your answer.
3.
In
your oral presentation you will answer the question posed in 2.d. You will have 5-minutes for your
presentation, in addition to a 1-minute period of questioning from member of
the class.
III. RESOURCES:
You
will use resources within CompuLEGAL
(as hyperlinked above) as the basis of your research. You may, of course, also use a variety of
other online resources, as discussed in class.
IV. EVALUATION:
Your teacher and a
randomly-selected member of the class will now assign a grade to your report
and assignment. Your final Webquest grade will be the average of these two grades. You will be graded according to the
following:
Earned
a Grade of 4
q Shows thorough understanding of the topic
q Addresses all aspects of the task
q Shows ability to analyze, evaluate, compare and contrast issues
q Richly supports topic with relevant facts, examples, and
details
q Shows ability to analyze, evaluate, compare and contrast
issues
q Richly supports topic with relevant facts, examples, and
details
q Presents a strong and well organized “ case”
Earned
a Grade of 3
q Shows a good understanding of the topic
q Addresses all aspects of the task
q Shows ability to analyze, evaluate issues
q
Includes relevant facts, examples, and
details, but not support all aspects of the “case”
q Presents an organized “case”
Earned
a Grade of 2
q Presents satisfactory understanding of the topic
q Addresses most aspects of the task
q Able to analyze issues and events, but not in depth
q Uses some relevant facts, examples, and details
q Presents “case”, but not very organized
Earned
a Grade of 1
¨
Shows
little understanding of topic
¨
Attempts
to address topic, but uses vague information
¨
Uses
little facts, examples, or details
¨
Cannot
present an acceptable “case”
Standards
English
Language Arts Standards
E1C – Read and comprehend informational
materials
E2A – Produce a report of information
Social Studies Standards
SS5 – Civics, Citizenship, and Government –
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their
understanding of the necessity for establishing governments, the governmental
system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution,
the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles,
rights and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.
From http://www.nycenet.edu/teachlearn/standards/
V. CONCLUSION:
You have now
completed your WebQuest. You are now an
expert on the case of Brown v. Board of
Education and the issue of students’ rights. You have extracted the legal principles in Brown and applied them to a real-world
situation. You are now also aware of the
ways in which lawyers can use precedents to defend their clients.
*****APPENDIX*****
***HERE IS SOME
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO CONSIDER,
AS DISCUSSED IN CLASS***
AIM: DID USSC'S ATTITUDES TOWARDS BLACKS CHANGE FROM 1896 to 1954?
I.O.: SWBAT
1. read and analyze the Cases of Plessey-v-Ferguson and Brown-v-
Board of Education
2. compare the decisions in the cases and examine how the court's
attitude towards blacks changed
3.take and defend a position as to whether or not American
attitudes towards blacks changed from 1896 - 1954
MOT.: “Good fences make good neighbors.” What do you think this statement means?
I) BLACKS AND THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
A) PLESSEY-v-FERGUSON
A) WHAT WAS THE CASE OF PLESSEY-v-FERGUSON ABOUT?
1. read case on ditto # 1
B) HOW WOULD YOU DECIDE THIS CASE? WHY?
2. read decision
B) BROWN -v- BOARD OF EDUCATION
C) WHAT WAS THE CASE OF BROWN -v- EDUCATION ABOUT?
1. read case on ditto # 2
D) HOW WOULD YOU DECIDE THIS CASE? WHY?
2. read decision
E) IS THE DECISION IN THE BROWN CASE DIFFERENT FROM PLESSEY OR THE
SAME? EXPLAIN.
F.S.: DID THE USSC'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS BLACKS CHANGE FROM 1896 to 1954
APP.: WHAT IS THE ATTITUDE OF THE COURTS TOWARDS BLACKS TODAY?
ACADEMY FOR BUSINESS AND LAW B. HERRERO, PRINCIPAL
H6$ AIM: SEGREGATION: T. THOMAS, A.P. SUPERVISION
PLESSEY-v-FERGUSON, BROWN-v-BOARD OF EDUCATION
PLESSEY-v-FERGUSON
Blacks who hoped for federal protection received little help from the Supreme Court. In the Civil Rights Cases in 1883, the Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment prevented state governments, but not private businesses, from discriminating by race. In 1896, the Court went even further in legalizing racism.
Jim Crow laws
were passed in
railroad facilities for blacks and whites. The railroad and civil rights groups wanted to challenge the constitutionality of this law. As a test case, Homer Adolph Plessey, a mulatto, sat in an all white car. He was arrested and found guilty of violating the law. The case was appealed all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. The case dealt with a Constitutional conflict. Did a state's right to pass legislation (reserved power in the 10th Amendment) violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
DECISION:
The Supreme
Court ruled in favor of
One member of the Supreme Court disagreed with the decision in Plessey-v-Ferguson. Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote, "Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens...The thin disguise of 'equal' accommodations...will not mislead anyone." Indeed, segregation had become a thin disguise for reducing blacks to the status of second-class citizens.
ACADEMY FOR BUSINESS AND LAW B. HERRERO, PRINCIPAL
BROWN-v-BOARD OF EDUCATION T. THOMAS, A.P. SUPERVISION
The major legal obstacle facing blacks in the struggle for equality with whites was the decision in the case of Plessey-v-Ferguson. The Plessey decision said that states could segregate public facilities as long as the separate facilities were equal for both races. In practice, blacks rarely enjoyed public facilities equal to those of whites.
Charles Houston, head of
Though the case involved several black school
children, it got its name from just one nine year old Linda Brown of
Racially segregated schools could never be equal, the lawyers argued, because segregation degraded black children. It taught young blacks that white society considered them inferior, not worthy of mixing with the white children. After studying years of testimony in dozens of related cases, the Supreme Court agreed. To overturn Plessey and outlaw segregation, however, the NAACP lawyers had to persuade the justices of another point. They had to show that the separate schools were unequal--BY DEFINITION.
DECISION
It was May 17, 1954 and civil rights backers rejoiced. The Supreme
Court had outlawed racial segregation in public schools.
The Court agreed that most black schools were worse than those provided for whites. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the Court's decision. He stated, "To separate [black children] from others of similar age...solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority...that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."
The decision was a triumph for legal equality. But it is one thing to make a new law and another thing to enforce it. The Brown decision struck down legal segregation without clearly saying when or how schools had to desegregate. The Brown decision ordered forced racial segregation to be abolished. The mere act of separation itself violated the "equal protection of the law" as guaranteed all Americans by the Fourteenth Amendment.
RESULTS
In reality, few schools integrated students. Governors of some Southern states refused to carry out the Court's orders. Large hostile crowds of whites kept black students out of all white schools. Many Southerners said the Federal government had no power to decide local school matters. The principle of federalism was once more at the heart of a controversy. Education had always been a reserved power of the states. Most schools remained segregated through the 1950's.
