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On May 18th, 1896 the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" facilities on railways were constitutional. This stamp of legality upon "separate but equal" laws, gave credibility to the notorious Jim Crow laws that would stand for another 60 years. -
On February 12th, 1909 the NAACP was founded by W.E.B Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Story, and Ida B. Wells. -
In January 1936, the Maryland Court of Appeals decided in favor of Donald Murray. Murray had applied to the University of Maryland and was rejected on account of his race. Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton (NAACP) represented Murray during the case and argued that the university's rejection based on race was unconstitutional. -
On July 10th, 1936 the NAACP and the University of Missouri go to court over the University's rejection of Lloyd Gaines because of his race. -
On December 12th, 1938 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Lloyd Gaines. This decision was a step in the right direction for Black Americans. Unfortunately, the court ruled that Missouri was to blame because there was no "equal" school for Black Americans. This distinction still upheld the "separate but equal" argument that the southern Jim Crow states had been making for the past 40 years or so. -
In 1940 Thurgood Marshall was appointed by the NAACP to head the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The fund was created to take segregation down across America. -
On February 28th, the Brown v. Board case is filed in a federal district court in Topeka, Kansas.
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In December of 1952, five cases of school segregation were to be heard in the Supreme Court; now accordingly titled Brown v. Board of Education. -
On May 17th, 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown. In the new landmark case, Thurgood Marshall and many other NAACP lawyers fought for the rights of students to attend what had been white schools. This victory secured the downfall of "separate but equal" policies all over the South and was an enormous proponent for desegregation and led to the death of Jim Crow. -
In November of 1960, Ruby Bridges was escorted by her mother and four federal marshals to her first day of first grade at William Frantz Elementary in Mississippi.