jan 1, 1954 - Brown v Board of Education

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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark Supreme Court Case that ruled racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in 1954. This case helped establish that “separate but equal” education was inherently unequal, and it solidified the roots of the Civil Rights Movement.

Plaintiff Oliver Brown had filed a class-action lawsuit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951 after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied admission to Topeka’s all-white elementary schools. Brown stated that the all-Black schools were inferior to the all-white schools and argued that segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment. His claims contradicted the basis of the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling in 1896 in which the Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public facilities were legal if they were equal.

On the surface level, many Westfielders supported equal rights throughout the 1950s. Townspeople hosted many prominent Black lecturers and invited advocates of equal rights to speak to the community. Additionally, Mayor Emerson Thomas placed Langston Hughes’ A Pictorial History of the Negro in America in the Westfield Memorial Library, acknowledging that “it offers valuable lessons on the contributions of the Negro race to this country.”

Yet, many members of the Westfield African-American community felt the effects of racial prejudice. Redlining and housing discrimination was an acute problem for Black people in Westfield who struggled to find real estate. In a survey of the town, only 67% of African-American respondents felt their child had a good chance for education in Westfield, compared to 92% of white respondents. Many Black respondents made statements that they felt unwanted within restaurants in Westfield, with only 16% stating they felt well-served at Westfield eateries. Although many white Westfielders purported to support equal rights, the reality was that racism was still a prominent force in Westfield.

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