Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al. (342 U.S. 350)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 28, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 350 · 72 S. Ct. 327
- Docket
- No. 273
- Decided
- January 28, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 7–2
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Black (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. Appellant Negro school children brought this action in the Federal District Court to enjoin appellee school officials from making any distinctions based upon race or color in providing educational facilities for School District No. 22, Clarendon County, South Carolina. As the b'asis for their complaint, appellants alleged that equal •facilities are not provided for Negro pupils aAd that those constitutional and statutory provisions of South Carolina requiring separate schools “for children of the white and' colored races” are-invalid under the. Fourteenth Amendment. At the trial before a court of; three judges, appellees conceded that the school facilities provided for Negro students “are not substantially equal to those afforded in the District for white pupils.” The District Court held, one judge dissenting, that the challenged constitutional and statutory provisions were' not of themselves violative of the Fourteenth, Amendment. The court below also found that the educational facilities afforded by appellees for Negro pupils are not equal to those provided for white children. The District Court did not issue an injunction abolishing racial dis- . tinetions as prayed by appellants, but did order appellees to proceed at once to furnish educational facilities for Negroes .eqüal.tó-those furnished white pupils. In its decree, entered June 21, 1951, the District…
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