On July 25, 1974, the Supreme Court issued its 5-4 ruling in Milliken v. Bradley, effectively ending meaningful school desegregation efforts across metropolitan America by prohibiting cross-district busing remedies to address urban-suburban segregation. The decision exempted wealthy white suburbs …
Chief Justice Warren BurgerJustice Thurgood MarshallU.S. Supreme CourtNAACP Legal Defense FundDetroit Public Schoolseducationsupreme-courtsegregationhousing-policyjudicial-capture+2 more
On February 1, 1960, at 4:30 PM, four African American freshmen from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University—Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil—sat down at the whites-only lunch counter at the F.W. Woolworth Company store in Greensboro, North …
On September 24, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and issued Executive Order 10730, federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and dispatching 1,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas. This dramatic federal intervention became …
Orval FaubusDwight EisenhowerLittle Rock Nine101st Airborne DivisionArkansas National Guardcivil-rightsinstitutional-racismsegregationfederal-interventiondemocratic-erosion
On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the district court ruling in Browder v. Gayle, declaring Montgomery, Alabama’s bus segregation laws unconstitutional. The decision marked the triumphant conclusion of the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott and established Martin Luther …
Martin Luther King Jr.Rosa ParksE.D. NixonJo Ann RobinsonMontgomery Improvement Association+2 morecivil-rightssegregationjudicialnonviolent-resistancedemocratic-breakthrough
On February 6, 1956, the University of Alabama expelled Autherine Lucy, its first Black student, after a three-day white supremacist riot made her presence on campus untenable. University officials blamed Lucy for the violence and used her NAACP-supported lawsuit challenging her suspension as …
The White Citizens’ Councils reach peak membership of between 250,000 and 300,000 individuals in 1956, establishing a national body known as the Citizens’ Councils of America. The movement, led by Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Tom P. Brady and first formed on July 11, 1954 in response …
White Citizens' CouncilsTom P. BradyRoss BarnettAllen C. ThompsonM. Ney Williamssegregationwhite-supremacybusiness-elitecorporate-resistancecivil-rights-opposition+1 more
On the evening of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American seamstress and NAACP secretary, was arrested for violating Chapter 6, Section 11 of the Montgomery City Code, which upheld racial segregation on public buses. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a …
Rosa ParksMartin Luther King Jr.Montgomery Improvement AssociationE.D. NixonWomen's Political Councilcivil-rightsinstitutional-racismsegregationnonviolent-resistancedemocratic-erosion
On May 31, 1955, one year after declaring school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court issued Brown II, its implementation ruling. Rather than setting firm deadlines or providing specific remedies, the Court ordered desegregation proceed “with all …
Earl WarrenU.S. Supreme CourtNAACP Legal Defense FundThurgood MarshallSouthern state governmentscivil-rightssegregationjudicialdemocratic-erosionmassive-resistance
On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The Court declared that racial segregation in public schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, …
On July 17, 1948, approximately 6,000 Southern Democrats from 13 states converge on Birmingham, Alabama, to form the States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) after walking out of the Democratic National Convention in protest of the party’s civil rights platform. The convention …
Strom ThurmondFielding L. WrightStates Rights Democratic PartyDemocratic PartyAlabama delegation+1 moreracial-politicssegregationsouthern-strategystates-rightspolitical-realignment
The Supreme Court unanimously struck down a Louisville, Kentucky ordinance prohibiting Black residents from moving onto blocks where the majority of residents were white, and vice versa. While appearing to be a civil rights victory, the Court’s reasoning in Buchanan v. Warley rested entirely …
Supreme Court of the United StatesNAACPMoorfield StoreyLouisville, Kentuckyhousing-discriminationcivil-rightsprogressive-erajudicial-powersegregation
Within months of taking office, President Woodrow Wilson’s administration began systematically segregating the federal government, reversing decades of relative integration in civil service employment. Postmaster General Albert Burleson proposed segregation at an April 11, 1913 cabinet …
President Woodrow WilsonPostmaster General Albert BurlesonTreasury Secretary William McAdooNAACPBooker T. Washington+1 morecivil-rightssegregationprogressive-erafederal-governmentinstitutional-racism