U.S. Supreme Court Case
The Supreme Court's decision predicates its affirmance on economic arguments, among others. It claims that there are many more colored children than white children in the area, and that the Board could not afford to supply everyone with education. The court argued that there was a choice between educating 60 white children and educating no one.
The Supreme Court denied that it had any jurisdiction to interfere in the decisions of the state courts. The decision states in pertinent part:
| “ | Under the circumstances disclosed, we cannot say that this action of the state court was, within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, a denial by the state to the plaintiffs and to those associated with them of the equal protection of the laws or of any privileges belonging to them as citizens of the United States, .... the education of the people in schools maintained by state taxation is a matter belonging to the respective states, and any interference on the part of Federal authority with the management of such schools cannot be justified except in the case of a clear and unmistakable disregard of rights secured by the supreme law of the land. | ” |
The 'hostility to the colored population' is addressed in the final remark as follows:
| “ | If, in some appropriate proceeding instituted directly for that purpose, the plaintiffs had sought to compel the board of education, out of the funds in its hands or under its control, to establish and maintain a high school for colored children, and if it appeared that the board's refusal to maintain such a school was in fact an abuse of its discretion and in hostility to the colored population because of their race, different questions might have arisen in the state court. | ” |
Justice John Marshall Harlan, who was the lone dissenter in Plessy v. Ferguson, wrote the majority for the court.
Read more about this topic: Cumming V. Richmond County Board Of Education
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