Why did the court choose not to “turn the clock back to 1868” when considering the issue of segregation in public schools?

The court was considering whether segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. It did not limit its analysis to what education was like when the amendment was adopted in 1868; instead, it considered segregation’s effects over time, including the unequal educational opportunities it created. That supports choice C: the court recognized that segregation had resulted in inequality in education over time.

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