[ 573 ] U.S. History GED ® TEST SOCIAL STUDIES FLASH REVIEW _____________ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Use the excerpt below, from the 1954 Supreme Court Decision Brown et al v. Board of Education of Topeka et al, to answer the following four questions. In each of these cases, minors of the Negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their community on a non-segregated basis. In each instance, they had been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. This segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. […] A three-judge federal district court denied relief to the plaintiffs on the so-called “separate but equal” doctrine announced by this court in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S.537. Under that doctrine, equality of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities, even though these facilities be separate. […] The plaintiffs contend that segregated public schools are not “equal” and cannot be made “equal,” and that hence they are deprived of the equal protection of the laws. […] We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does. […] Segregation of white and colored children has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. […] We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. [by Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for the majority of the Court] According to Justice Warren, what is the question the Court must answer? a. Is segregation by race in public schools unfair to minority children? b. Should the Court demand equal facilities in segregated schools? c. Does the Court have authority over public school systems? d. Does the Constitution give control of education to the states?