1950s

The NAACP began to challenge segregation in graduate and secondary schools in the mid-1930s. Early successes in the Supreme Court barred law schools from denying applicants on the basis of race alone. Application of these cases to public schools finally happened in Brown v. Board of Education, in 1954. In Brown I, after two rounds of oral arguments, the Supreme Court held that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. A third round of arguments were held in 1955, concerning remedies, and in Brown II, the Court ordered that desegregation should occur “with all deliberate speed.” Unfortunately, the vagueness of this phrase, combined with the unwillingness of many states to desegregate, meant that many states were able to postpone any desegregation. Anger over these delays and a growing frustration over the continued disenfranchisement of African-Americans helped launch the Civil Rights Movement.

• Thurgood Marshall Photo Gallery

• An Interview with Ruby Bridges Hall

• Brown v. Board of Education, I

• Brown v. Board of Education, II

• Rosa Parks

• Frontiers in Civil Rights