This discussion and our own investigation convince us that, although these sources cast some light, it is not enough to resolve the problem with which we are faced. It covered exhaustively consideration of the Amendment in Congress, ratification by the states, then-existing practices in racial segregation, and the views of proponents and opponents of the Amendment. Reargument was largely devoted to the circumstances surrounding the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. Argument was heard in the 1952 Term, and reargument was heard this Term on certain questions propounded by the Court. Because of the obvious importance of the question presented, the Court took jurisdiction. 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. In the Delaware case, the Supreme Court of Delaware adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that the plaintiffs be admitted to the white schools because of their superiority to the Negro schools.
Under that doctrine, equality of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities, even though these facilities be separate. In each of the cases other than the Delaware case, 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. This segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. In each instance, they had been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. In each of the 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 nonsegregated basis. They are premised on different facts and different local conditions, but a common legal question justifies their consideration together in this consolidated opinion. These cases come to us from the States of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware.
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