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The NAACP board of directors formally endorsed Thurgood Marshall's view on segregation strategy.
By adopting Marshall's view, the NAACP decided to devote its efforts solely to an all-out attack on segregation in education, rather than pressing for the equalization of segregated facilities. Significance: The NAACP defense team attacked the "equal" standard so that the "separate" standard would, in turn, become vulnerable. -
Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma
A unanimous Supreme Court held that Lois Ada Sipuel could not be denied entrance to a state law school solely because of her race. Significance: The Court ruled denial of entrance to a state law school solely on the basis of race unconstitutional. -
Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al.
Thurgood Marshall and NAACP officials met with Black residents of Clarendon County, SC. They decided that the NAACP would launch a test case against segregation in public schools if at least 20 plaintiffs could be found. By November, Harry Briggs and 19 other plaintiffs were assembled, and the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Clarendon County School Board. Significance: Briggs v. Elliott became one of the cases consolidated by the Supreme Court into Brown v. Board of Education. -
Sweatt v. Painter
Sweatt v. Painter
The Supreme Court held that the University of Texas Law School must admit a Black student, Herman Sweatt. The University of Texas Law School was far superior in its offerings and resources to the separate Black law school, which had been hastily established in a downtown basement. Significance: The Supreme Court held that Texas failed to provide separate but equal education, prefiguring the future opinion in Brown that "separate but equal is inherently unequal." -
McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents
The Supreme Court invalidated the University of Oklahoma's requirement that a Black student, admitted to a graduate program unavailable to him at the state's Black school, sit in separate sections of or in spaces adjacent to the classroom, library, and cafeteria. Significance: The Supreme Court held that these restrictions were unconstitutional because it interfered with his "ability to study, to engage in discussions, and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profe -
Bolling v. Sharpe
Charles Houston provided legal representation for the Consolidated Parents Group, who, under the direction of Gardner Bishop, attempted to enroll a group of Black students in all White John Philip Sousa Junior High School, in Washington, D.C. Significance: The Bolling case became one of the consolidated Brown cases. The U. S. Supreme Court would eventually file a separate opinion on Bolling because the 14th Amendment was not applicable in Washington, D.C. -
On February 28, Brown v. Board of Education was filed in Federal district court, in Kansas.
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Brown v. Board of Education
Robert Carter led the NAACP legal team into trial. Significance: In August, a three-judge panel at the U. S. District Court unanimously held in the Brown v. Board of Education case that "no willful, intentional or substantial discrimination" existed in Topeka’s schools. The U. S. District Court found that the physical facilities in White and Black schools were comparable and that the lower court’s decisions in Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin only applied to graduate education. -
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, VA
The U. S. District court found in favor of the school board under the theory of "separate but equal." Significance: The U. S. District Court unanimously rejected the Davis plaintiffs’ request to order desegregation of Prince Edward County, VA, schools, ordering the "equalization" of Black schools instead. -
First Aruments Brown V. Board
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Second Set of Arguments for Brown V. Board
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A New Justice
Chief Justice Fred Vinson Jr. died unexpectedly of a heart attack on the 8th. President Eisenhower nominated California Governor Earl Warren to replace Vinson as interim Chief on the 30th. The Court rescheduled arguments in Brown for December. Significance: Justice Earl Warren would go on to deliver the unanimous ruling in the Brown v. Board case. -
Second round of arguments in Brown v. Board of Education.
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Brown v. Board of Education
The Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, and declared that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. -
Bolling v. Sharpe
That same day, the Court held that racial segregation in the District of Columbia public schools violated the Due Process clause of the 5th Amendment in Bolling v. Sharpe. The Court scheduled arguments on remedy in Brown for October but eventually put them off until April of 1955. Significance: The Court ruled that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment and was, therefore, unconstitutional. In the wake of the decision, the District of Columbia an -
Third Round of Hearings in Brown v Board Case
The Supreme Court heard its third round of arguments in Brown, this time concerning remedies. -
Brown II
On the last day of the term, the Supreme Court handed down Brown II, ordering that desegregation occur with "all deliberate speed." Significance: Brown II was intended to work out the mechanics of desegregation. Due to the vagueness of the term "all deliberate speed," many states were able to stall the Court’s order to desegregate their schools. The legal and social obstacles that southern states put in place and encouraged, in their effort to thwart integration, served as a catalyst for the s