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Language and rhetoric in Brown v. Board of Education
Abstract
It is important to study how language is used as well as what the words say whether one is examining literary, legal, or other written works. Language structures how we view the world, and it can be used to achieve reform or to block it. The decision in Brown v. Board of Education is an example of such a restructuring of our perceptions. The changes wrought by the Brown decision did not occur overnight. Years of litigation and judicial intervention were to follow before one could say that the nation's schools were really desegregated. But without that decision, perhaps no changes would have occurred. This study of the language of the opinion in Brown v. Board of Education reveals the purposefulness of its logic and rhetoric. It was neither carelessly nor hastily written, as some critics have alleged. It was intended by its authors to establish as a fundamental right the necessity for children to have access to the public schools, regardless of race, in accordance with the promise of the Fourteenth Amendment of equality before the law. The court in Brown v. Board of Education evoked familiar images for the rhetorical purpose of encouraging its audiences to accept the change it was making in the landscape of American law. It concentrated its arguments on the importance of education and the importance of fairness to the children whose futures were at stake. In so doing the court used language to change the focus of public awareness from race to education, hoping to gain acceptance of this decision.
Subject Area
Linguistics|Law
Recommended Citation
Bellman, Kathryn Anne, "Language and rhetoric in Brown v. Board of Education" (1990). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9030105.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9030105