Brown V. Board of Education at Fifty

Book excerpt: Six American communication studies scholars contribute six chapters to the first analysis of the role that rhetoric played in establishing, defending, challenging, and overturning legalized educational segregation by race. Coverage includes a reconstruction of the rhetorical context of Plessy v. Ferguson; the Harlan dissent in Plessy; the NAACP's efforts over 40-plus years to reverse Plessy's support of educational segregation; an analysis of the Brown decision, with particular focus on the controversial use of social scientific evidence; the reaction to the Brown decision in the South; and a comparison of two major Supreme Court decisions implementing Brown. Annotation ̧2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) -- Distributed by Syndetics Solutions, LLC.