Publication Date
2009
Abstract
Disagreement over the meaning and legacy of Brown v. Board of Education is part of a larger debate about the capacity of the courts to influence social change. A "down with Brown" movement (epitomized by Gerald Rosenberg's Hollow Hope) denies that the iconic case positively changed America. To better understand the real impact of Brown, I examined the demands of sixty-eight related United States Supreme Court cases (particularly the paradigm-shifting 1968 case of Green v. County School Board) and conducted a content study of 414 relevant United States District Court cases (from 1944 through 1974). These studies provide compelling evidence that Brown had a significant impact on desegregation efforts-even in the public schools of the Deep South. They reveal an accumulating judicial process-descending from Brown-that correlates well with actual desegregation successes. In fact, this process correlates better than legislative efforts, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Considering the cumulative process of a "Green-lighted"Brown-rather than that historic case in isolation-better exposes the true power of the courts to influence social change.
Recommended Citation
Strickler, Vincent J.
(2009)
"Green-Lighting Brown: A Cumulative-Process Conception of Judicial Impact,"
Georgia Law Review: Vol. 43:
No.
3, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/glr/vol43/iss3/4