While the right to an education is not enumerated in the United States Constitution, the majority of states - including Tennessee - include public education as a right in their constitutions. However, access to this right has not always been guaranteed to all residents. 

 

In 1954, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka made racial school segregation illegal, but it did not mandate a timeline for integration. In 1955, the Supreme Court issued the Brown II decision, which stipulated that states begin desegregating schools “with all deliberate speed.” Many school districts used the vagueness of this decision to deliberately delay integration.