1899+Cumming+v.+Richmond+County+Board+of+Education

Retrieved from, http://schoollawlandmarkcases.wikispaces.com/Landmark+Cases+in+Education+during+the+1800s 8/12/2013 In today's world, where we have made it so all individuals have the right to education, African-American people have as much right to the same education and public funding as any other person in the country. Support for the plaintiffs in a case like this would surely be the appropriate action.
 * Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education ****, 175 U.S. 528 (1899) **
 * Summary: ** This class action suit was one of the earliest legal cases that dealt with racial segregation in American public schools. African-American citizens of Georgia sued the Board of Education of Richmond County because taxes were used to pay for high schools for white students only. The plaintiffs were property owners and tax payers and at the time there was a tax levy for $45,000 to build more schools. They demanded relief for some of the taxes that would only support “whites-only” high schools. The plaintiffs argued that the board could not legally levy a tax for the support of a high school unless African-American students received the same educational facilities. They stated that it was against their Constitutional rights under the Equal Protection Clause. The case went to the Supreme Court of Georgia where the petition was dismissed, then made it to the U.S Supreme Court in which economic arguments were used against the plaintiffs. The courts claimed that there were more black children than white children where they lived, and as a result, the board of education couldn't afford for all children to attend high school. The courts declined the tax relief for the plaintiffs and concluded that the case didn't violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The courts also argued that the plaintiffs never mentioned the “separate but equal” issue, and therefore couldn't further the case. Lastly, the court stated that public taxation to support schools was a state’s right, not a federal jurisdiction.