Brown v. Board of Education … and Beyond

This resource is an Inquiry Pack to accompany the Students’ Rights Timeline on LegalTimelines.org, which explores the evolution of students’ rights inside the schoolhouse gates and beyond.

Built around primary sources from the Library of Congress and other collections, this Inquiry Pack facilitates a deep dive into an important aspect of the history of suffrage and voting rights in the United States.

Each Inquiry Pack includes a background reading, several primary sources (documents, articles, images), discussion questions about the sources, an inquiry question, and an inquiry extension question.

This pack includes the following components:

• Introduction: Brown v. Board of Education
• The Desegregation of Public Schools: Brown v. Board of Education (I)
• Reaction to the Brown Decision
• “All Deliberate Speed”: Brown v. Board of Education (II)
• “Massive Resistance”
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• School Segregation Today
• Inquiry Question: To what extent and why did the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) require the support of the legislative and executive branches and additional decisions to integrate schools?
• Inquiry Extension Question: Has the promise of Brown v. Board of Education been achieved?
• Inquiry Question Graphic Organizer