Multiple Ironies: Brown at 50

Abstract

Brown v. Board of Education occupies a vaunted space in American jurisprudence. One commentator writes that Brown is the most celebrated case in the Court's history. Equally laudatory, another commentator remarks: "In the half century since the Supreme Court's decision, Brown has become a beloved legal and political icon." A third proclaims that, "Brown forever changed the role of the United States Supreme Court in American politics and society." To the lay public, Brown sits among a small pantheon of cases that is widely recognizable to the average American.' Miranda and Roe v. Wade likely are the only others with equal or greater name recognition. To many, Brown represents the high point of the Civil Rights movement in America. On this account, Brown symbolizes an aggressive and affirmative attack on the effects of white supremacy in a Jim Crow America and is the doctrinal and normative progenitor of affirmative action and similar state-sanctioned, race-based, remedial programs. To others, who hold Brown in equally high regard, it signifies a colorblind America where one is not judged by race or ethnicity, but by the content of one's character. Brown is considered an iconic case among various (often divergent) ideological viewpoints.