Law and Social Sciences in the Struggle against Discrimination
Law and Social Sciences in the Struggle against Discrimination

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the role of social scientists in the landmark antidiscrimination case Brown vs. Board of Education, argued in front of the Supreme Court of the United States 1952-1954. The article explores the influence of expert reports commissioned by the plaintiffs in this case, which were focusing on derogatory aspects of separate schools for Black children. It maintains that on the matter of desegregation forward-looking social science was ahead of the overtly racist state legislation. Hence the reports came as a great help to the Justices of the Supreme Court, torn between their personally liberal convictions and conservative, precedent-driven constitutional review. Social scientist, whose recollections and debates are reviewed at some length, filled this gap with the data that helped the Supreme Court to reach unanimous verdict that overturned the constitutional precedents and made segregated schooling unconstitutional.

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