Houston Bar Association Law Week Essay Contest
First Place Winner

The Toll of Freedom

By KATHLEEN KWIE
Michael DeBakey High School for Health Professions

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men… will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’” Martin Luther King spoke these powerful words nine years after a very important decision in 1954. Brown v. Board of Education was a step closer to ringing the bell of freedom that King wanted to hear in his ears. What seemed to be a very miniature hop towards the goal of equality, this crucial decision was a breakthrough. This shattered the silence of the angry and hurtful acceptance of what was unjust by using the powerful voice and action of the government.
The efforts to make this loud declaration of equality started decades ago, but a Black third-grade student named Linda Brown sparked the fight in Topeka, Kansas. She had to walk a mile every day to and from her black elementary school even though a white elementary school was just seven blocks away. After being refused Linda’s enrollment at the school closest to her house, her father, Oliver Brown, called on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to challenge the superiority of the state of Kansas. Brown and the NAACP went to court to ask for an injunction that would prohibit segregation in the public schools in his hometown. They appealed to the Supreme Court where they found similar struggles with equality in other states. The Courts decided that segregated schools deprive black children of equal protection of the law. As a result, the Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and desegregated all schools in America.
Although this victory did not solve the problems of inequality in restaurants and restrooms and other public places, the African Americans climbed several rungs of the ladder of struggles. Brown v. Board of Education became a gate that would open up to all students willing to learn and take education, but also closed to the hate and segregation. This became the greatest opportunity to make dreams reality. Through education, children who wanted to be a lawyer, a doctor, or an architect would find the road to get there, but some children were not given the chance to even imagine themselves to be successful. Plessy v. Ferguson’s “separate by equal” was not good enough for the citizens of America. Many were born and went to school with the shame of knowing that if he or she wore the dark skin that their parents wore, they were cursed forever. There was no such thing as a fair education, ultimate success, or feeling worthy.
Brown v. Board overcame inferiority in education and tore down the walls of limitation that held down the potential of each and every child. Many educated and successful minorities fill the positions of police officers, lawyers, senators, engineers, and heart surgeons. This is only made possible through this decision which shows that America has confidence that all her children will grow up to be productive members of her society. This turning point has caused self-confidence to sprout and continue to grow, as children discover the jewel of hope of definitely finding success in life. They pocket this jewel everyday until they can pass it on to their own children. As generations pass by, more colorful faces can be seen in all work forces, churches, friends, and family.
Slowly America is defeating each rung of struggle one by one to reach the bell of freedom. Only through trials and decisions that become law, does a country like America have such equality. Even today, we are still climbing, kicking the monster of hate that follows us to the top. Brown v. Board is a turning point for public education in America. Now everyone can experience equality and grasp equal opportunity. We are striving to hear the bell of freedom.

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