Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education
E22695
Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education was an 1899 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld racial segregation in public education by allowing a Georgia county to close a Black high school while maintaining white schools, reinforcing the “separate but equal” doctrine later challenged in Brown v. Board of Education.
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
U.S. Supreme Court case
→
education law case → legal case → segregation case → |
| category |
United States Supreme Court cases on civil rights
→
United States Supreme Court cases on education → United States Supreme Court cases on equal protection → |
| citation |
175 U.S. 528
→
|
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
→
|
| contributedTo |
legal foundation for segregated school systems prior to 1954
→
|
| court |
Supreme Court of the United States
→
|
| decisionDate |
1899
→
|
| defendant |
Richmond County Board of Education
→
|
| educationLevelInvolved |
high school
→
|
| effect |
limited federal judicial intervention in local school funding decisions
→
reinforced legality of segregated schooling in the Jim Crow era → |
| held |
a county could discontinue a public high school for Black students while maintaining schools for white students
→
federal courts should defer to local school authorities in matters of taxation and school administration absent clear constitutional violations → racial segregation in public education was permissible under the U.S. Constitution at that time → |
| historicalSignificance |
early Supreme Court approval of racially segregated public education
→
helped entrench separate but equal doctrine in education → |
| issue |
Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause
→
closure of Black public high school → funding of public schools → racial segregation in public education → |
| jurisdiction |
State of Georgia
→
United States → |
| laterChallengedBy |
Brown v. Board of Education
→
|
| legalArea |
civil rights law
→
constitutional law → education law → |
| legalDoctrine |
separate but equal
→
|
| location |
Richmond County, Georgia
→
|
| overruledInEffectBy |
Brown v. Board of Education
→
|
| parties |
J. W. Cumming et al.
→
Richmond County Board of Education → |
| plaintiffs |
Black taxpayers of Richmond County, Georgia
→
|
| precededBy |
Plessy v. Ferguson
→
|
| precedentFor |
upholding racial segregation in public schools
→
|
| racePolicy |
closure of Black public high school
→
maintenance of white public high school → |
| relatedTo |
Brown v. Board of Education
→
Plessy v. Ferguson → |
| subjectMatter |
allocation of school funds by race
→
public school taxation → |
| timeframe |
19th-century United States case law
→
|
| timePeriod |
Jim Crow era
→
|
Referenced by (1)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
Plessy v. Ferguson
→
|
relatedCase |