Teachers' Domain; Civil Rights; Simple Justice: Marshall's Closing Statement

Now you're honest. I got the feeling listening here yesterday that when you put a white child in a school with colored children. That child is going to fall apart. And we all know that this is not true. And those same kids. In South Carolina. In Virginia. They play in the streets. Together. They play on the farms. Together. They go down the road. Together. And they separate to go to school. They come out of school and they play ball together. But they must be separated. In school. There is some. Magic too. This court has said that black and white I'm titled to vote together to

live in the same housing developments you have said. Let them attend the same university. Law school. Nursing school. But if they attend the same elementary and high schools. The world. Will fall apart. And yesterday Mr. Davis said that he feared. The only thing needed Rosewell after. Was Presti. Status. Exactly correct. We do want that and why shouldn't we. Why should our being black. Deny us what others in this country take for granted. Has this country fought a tragic. Bloody civil war all.

Over the question of Allah's status and not one. But three amendments to the Constitution. Were passed in the wake of that war. To settle the question of ah status once and for all. The Fourteenth Amendment. Specifically promise. Equal status. It was a Negro Bill of Rights. What had been left out. Of our Constitution had finally been put in. Otherwise extraordinary Constitution was finally complete. No longer would we be denied the right to be free to take charge of own lives to become a proud. And inspiring people. But we all know. That some states made a mockery.

Of those. Sacred promises. And in 1896. The Supreme Court of the United States said. That's all right. The Plessy decision was and is a fraud. Nothing more than a license to discriminate. To potential weight the inequalities and injustices of slavery. And now is the time for this court to say that is not what our Constitution stands for. The only way this court. Can decide for the defendants is to say. Negroes are inferior to all other human be. And nobody will stand up in this court and urge that.

Openly. Before a court in this country today to deny that enforced racial segregation is a badge of inferiority why. They are shutting their eyes as judges. To what they must surely know. As men. If this court denies our appeal. That is the message you will be sending. To us. And to the world. Thank you.