The 14th Amendment was drawn up to address the status of African Americans after

slavery was abolished. The 14th Amendment guarantees all people, no matter their
race, the same treatment by the government and has since been referred to as the
Equal Protection clause. The 14th Amendment was intended to assure that due
process applies to everyone of all races and colors, making it a crime to deny
anyone their rights without going through due process. While most of these
provisions had been part of a Civil Rights Law passed in 1866, laws of Congress can
nullified with little effort. An amendment to the Constitution is much more difficult
to overturn. Hence, the 14th Amendment was meant to seal these rights
permanently.
There were five cases filed separately in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the
District of Columbia, and Delaware: Oliver Brown et al. v. Board of Education of
Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al.; Harry Briggs, Jr., et al. v. R.W. Elliott, et al.;
Dorothy E. Davis et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, et
al.; Spotswood Thomas Bolling et al. v. C. Melvin Sharpe et al.; Francis B. Gebhart et
al. v. Ethel Louise Belton et al. Each case had its different aspects, but all were filed
on the behalf of elementary school children, and all concerned black schools that
were substandard to schools for white children. Ultimately, rather than merely
confronting the inadequacy of the separate schools, each case alleged that the
"separate but equal" ruling infringed upon the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment. The federal district court, itself, pointed out the detrimental effects of
segregation on black children, but adhered to the notion that "separate but equal"
did not violate the Constitution
In 1952 the Supreme Court agreed to hear the five cases together. This was
important because it represented school segregation as a national issue involving
multiple states. Thurgood Marshall argued that the 14 th amendment permitted the
government to outlaw any state action based on race, including segregation in
public schools. On May 31, 1955, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the Court's
unanimous decision and instructed the states to begin desegregation "with all
deliberate speed."