Brown v Board of Education of Topeka (Brown II) (1955)

What did the Court say should happen next (Brown II)? 
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"The cases are remanded to the District Courts to take such proceedings and enter such orders and decrees consistent with this opinion as are necessary and proper to admit to public schools on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed..."

What does "all deliberate speed" mean?
----Frankfurter's language, taken from a 1911 opinion of Holmes

In practice, lots of deliberation and little speed
---10 years after Brown, only 1.2% of black children in the Deep South attended schools with white children!

Was this the best approach?
---Six law clerks (1 for immediate, 1 for 12 years, 1 for requiring local courts to set specific time limit, 3 for "good faith" implementation of order)

Did choice of words matter?
---Lack of federal will, not words
---Eisenhower to Warren while Brown was pending: "These are not bad people [in the South].  All they are concerned about is that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big black bucks."
---Harry Truman on Eisenhower: "If the fella that succeeded me had just given people a little leadership, there wouldn't have been all that difficulty over desegregating the schools, but he didn't do it.  He didn't use the power of the office of the President to uphold a ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States, and I never did understand that."


Road to Brown

Exploring Constitutional Law