I'm not sure Brown v Board of Education entirely overturned Plessy v Fergusson. If that had been the goal, the court could have affirmed Harlan's dissent in Plessy instead of relying on evidence of psychological damage done by segregation. And what a different world we would inhabit if they had done so. As Harlan wrote, "But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." Indeed, a much simpler approach to adjudicating disputes among free people.
He also wrote, "In respect of civil rights, common to all citizens, the constitution of the United States does not, I think, permit any public authority to know the race of those entitled to be protected in the enjoyment of such rights. Every true man has pride of race, and under appropriate circumstances, when the rights of others, his equals before the law, are not to be affected, it is his privilege to express such pride and to take such action based upon it as to him seems proper." This recognizes the incendiary notion of white pride, a concept anathema to modern-day champions of the Brown decision, along with what South Africa is referred to as "Positive Discrimination" and what we in the US know as "Affirmative Action."
I'm not sure Brown v Board of Education entirely overturned Plessy v Fergusson. If that had been the goal, the court could have affirmed Harlan's dissent in Plessy instead of relying on evidence of psychological damage done by segregation. And what a different world we would inhabit if they had done so. As Harlan wrote, "But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." Indeed, a much simpler approach to adjudicating disputes among free people.
He also wrote, "In respect of civil rights, common to all citizens, the constitution of the United States does not, I think, permit any public authority to know the race of those entitled to be protected in the enjoyment of such rights. Every true man has pride of race, and under appropriate circumstances, when the rights of others, his equals before the law, are not to be affected, it is his privilege to express such pride and to take such action based upon it as to him seems proper." This recognizes the incendiary notion of white pride, a concept anathema to modern-day champions of the Brown decision, along with what South Africa is referred to as "Positive Discrimination" and what we in the US know as "Affirmative Action."