|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
Thurgood
Marshall graduates first in his class from Howard University's
School of Law. Oliver Hill, also a classmate and one of the
Brown counsels, graduates second. Marshall and Hill were both
mentored by the Law School's vice-dean Charles Hamilton Houston.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Maryland Court of Appeals rules that Donald Murray, the
first black applicant to a white southern law school Law School,
must be admitted. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the case Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, the U.S. Supreme
Court invalidates state laws that required African-American
students to attend out-of-state graduate schools to avoid
admitting them to their states' all-white facilities or building
separate graduate schools for them. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thurgood Marshall writes the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund's corporate charter and becomes its first director and
chief counsel.
In the case Alston v. School Board of City of Norfolk, a federal
appeals court orders that African-American teachers be paid
salaries equal to those of white teachers. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charles Hamilton Houston, the chief architect of the legal
strategy for racial equality, dies. He was Thurgood Marshall's
teacher and mentor, and Dean of Howard University's Law School.
In the case McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, taken to the
Supreme Court by the NAACP, the Supreme Court holds that an
African-American student admitted to a formerly all-white
graduate school could not be subjected to practices of segregation
that interfered with meaningful classroom instruction and
interaction with other students, such as making a student
sit in the classroom doorway, isolated from the professor
and other students. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the case Sweatt v. Painter, another NAACP Legal Defense
Fund case, the Supreme Court rules that a separate law school
hastily established for black students to prevent their having
to be admitted to the previously all-white University of Texas
School of Law could not provide a legal education “equal”
to that available to white students. The Court orders the
admission of Herman Marion Sweatt to the University of Texas
Law School. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brown v. Board of Education:
The Supreme Court rules that racial segregation in public
schools violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees
equal protection, and the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees
due process. This landmark case overturned the “separate but
equal” doctrine that underpinned legal segregation. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The racial climate in the south intensifies, due in part to
the Supreme Court decision. In August, Emmett Till, a 14 year-old
African American, is murdered in Mississippi for whistling
at a white woman. His open-casket funeral in Chicago drew
50,000 mourners. In November, Rosa Parks refuses to give her
bus seat to a white passenger and move to the rear section
designated for black passengers. Ms. Parks's arrest inspires
the 382-day Montgomery bus boycott, led by Rev. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Both events sparked the mass movement for civil
rights. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
President Eisenhower orders National Guard to Little Rock,
Arkansas to escort nine black students to Central High School
to enforce Brown. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund wins a Supreme Court ruling that
barred Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus from interfering with
the desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School. The
decision affirms Brown as the law of the land nationwide.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prince Edward County, Virginia closes all of its public schools
rather than desegregate them. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
A lawsuit forces the University of Georgia to admit its first
two African Americans, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
James Meredith finally succeeds in becoming the first African-American
student to be admitted to the University of Mississippi (Ole
Miss) through the efforts of a legal team led by Constance
Baker Motley. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed by Congress. It bans
discrimination in voting, public accommodations, schools,
and employment. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The five-day Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights,
led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Voting Rights Act, which outlaws the poll tax, literacy
test, and other obstacles to black voters is passed by Congress.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thurgood Marshall is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court,
becoming the first African-American to sit on the bench. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the case Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
(Virginia), the Supreme Court holds that “freedom of choice”
plans are ineffective at producing actual school desegregation
and must be replaced with more effective strategies. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education:
The Supreme Court upholds the use of busing as a means of
desegregating public schools. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the case Norwood v. Harrison, the Supreme Court rules that
States cannot provide free textbooks to segregated private
schools established to allow whites to avoid public school
desegregation.
A federal appeals court approves a district court order requiring
federal education officials to enforce Title VI of the 1964
Civil Rights Act (which bars discrimination by recipients
of federal funds) against state universities, public schools,
and other institutions that receive federal money. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Milliken v. Bradley: The Supreme Court rules that,
in almost all cases, a federal court cannot impose an inter-district
remedy between a city and its surrounding suburbs in order
to integrate city schools. Such integration plans must be
voluntary.
After a long court battle, Boston was ordered to desgregate
its public schools. Busing to achieve integration ripped the
city apart, and made Boston a symbol of northern resistance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bakke v. Regents of the University of California: The
Supreme Court rules that schools can take race into account
in admissions, but cannot use quotas. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the case Dowell v. Oklahoma City, the Supreme Court authorized
a return to neighborhood schools even if the change in policy
would create re-segregation. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Boston ends its busing plan under threat of court action by
white opponents. Five years later, Boston public schools are
85% African American and Latino, and 1400 of 60,000 students
drop out.
Thirty years of court-supervised desegregation ends in Charlotte-Mecklenburg
school district. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
In Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger a major victory
for affirmative action, the Supreme Court rules in favor of
diversity as a compelling state interest in the University
of Michigan admissions case.
43,000 Florida students are forced to repeat third grade after
failing the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Most are
African American. High-stakes testing has been instituted
in 14 states and the City of New York. |
|
|
|
Excerpted with permission from (www.brownmatters.org)
|
|
|
|
