The court found the state's method inadequate, not in theory but in fact. Houston also made the law school library a depository for files on civil rights litigation from around the nation. The faculty consisted of two part-time instructors. Simply put, the Court was "unable to find substantial equality in the educational opportunities offered white and Negro law students by the State." The NAACP won the case and it was a big victory for civil rights. When Houston became the NAACP's special counsel in 1933, he reexamined Margold's litigation strategy. By the fall of 1950, the University of Maryland was forced by court order to open to blacks its graduate program in sociology. The student-to-faculty ratio was three times higher at Howard than at Claymont. One of his great-grandfathers had been taken as a slave from the Congo to Maryland where he was eventually freed. Redding was a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School and was admitted to practice in Delaware in 1929. Thurgood Marshalls legacy lives on with the Thurgood Marshall Institute, a multidisciplinary center within the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. But the statute provided only $10,000 for scholarships: a paltry $200 each for up to 50 black students seeking a professional education out of state. Furthermore, because of the rapid growth in the city's black population during World War II, housing conditions in poor communities were deplorable, and black schools were inferior to white schools. By the time of the trial, only 17 days after the scholarships became available, 380 African-American students had asked for applications, 113 had returned them, and there were still 12 more days during which completed applications would be accepted. Nonetheless, understanding the risk, he joined with the other conference members to support a resolution declaring that all future education cases would be aimed directly at segregation, not merely at the inequalities between black and white schools. After founding the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1940, Marshall became the key strategist in the effort to end racial segregation, in particular meticulously challenging Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court-sanctioned legal doctrine that called for separate but equal structures for white and Black people. In effect, the NAACP was making the argument it had made before the Texas court that the formula in Plessy was constitutionally malformed and that the 1896 case should be overruled. A victory against a state's single law school or medical school would reverberate across the state. With this pronouncement, America stood at the dawn of a new era in race relations. To be successful in eliminating segregated education throughout the United States, the NAACP realized it would have to convince the courts to take a much closer look at the equal side of the Plessy case. The alumni of the University of Texas School of Law were large in number and wielded a great deal of power and influence throughout the Lone Star State and beyond. Instead Margold urged an attack on "the constitutional validity of southern school systems as they exist and are administered at the present time [italics added]." Moreover, the liberalization of racial attitudes that started becoming part of American culture before the Second World War, a liberalization that provided an important, perhaps critical backdrop to the Brown decision, has continued. Few people attended them. Brown's importance in the history of American race relations is assured. But the law has found the system of structural inequality a more vexing problem. Leland B. Ware is Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. Past winners have included George Washington Carver, Will Smith, Mary J. Blige, Alex Haley, Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey. The NAACP played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The Court found, as a threshold matter, that the original intent of the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment on the question of segregated schools was not clear. They have an expertise in the subject matter far beyond that which they have in other kinds of cases. Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009. Some 10,000 people in New York City participated in a 1917 NAACP-organized silent march to protest lynchings and other violence against Black people. Under the leadership of W.E.B. The NAACP found one in Baltimore resident Donald Murray. In 1950 there were 300 Negro physicians, 150 African-American lawyers and judges, 150 black college professors, and 2,500 African-American schoolteachers residing in the District of Columbia. The NAACP will seek to safe guard the moral and tenure rights of Negro teachers in the assignment of personnel in desegregated systems. They then made a series of commands. After founding the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1940, Marshall became the key strategist in the effort to end racial segregation, in particular meticulously challenging Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court-sanctioned legal doctrine that called for "separate but equal" structures for white and Black people. The Clarks first asked the children, aged three to seven, to identify the race of the dolls. By the time an appellate court could hear the appeal, the legislature had appropriated $100,000 toward the establishment of a law school at the newly established Texas State University for Negroes in Houston. But Brown was not self-executing. His use of Redfield's testimony also showed that social science could be an important tool in the quest to vindicate the constitutional requirement of equal protection under the law. Civil rights and social change came about through meticulous and persistent litigation efforts, at the forefront of which stood Thurgood Marshall and the Legal Defense Fund. Death Row USA: Death Penalty Cases and Statistics by State. Using a combination of tactics including legal challenges, demonstrations and economic boycotts, the NAACP played an important role in helping end segregation in the United States. Once again, note that the Court was examining two different law schools and that the justices were familiar with legal education; from their own experience they could see that the two schools were clearly not equal. As a result of class divisions within the African-American community, Gardner's group formed separately from the school's PTA, which was dominated by middle-class blacks. The Court saw significant differences between the University of Texas and the Texas State University for Negroes in the number of faculty, the breadth and depth of course offerings, the size of the student body, the size and scope of the library, and the availability of cocurricular offerings. He served as Associate Justice from 1967-1991 after being nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Watch acclaimed Black History documentaries on HISTORY Vault. Given the events that led up to Browntrials lasting several days in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia; testimony presented by dozens of witnesses; and several days of intense arguments in the Supreme Court over a two-year periodthe opinion in Brown is remarkable in its brevity and simplicity. Until a new facility could be built in Houston, the new school would be housed in downtown Austin, across the street from the state capitol. Houston was a man of extraordinary brilliance. The Court found that it did, concluding that "to separate [black] children from others of similar age and qualifications generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in ways unlikely ever to be undone." Thus, Topeka had a limited option to have desegregated schools, and the city took it. The aim was to produce, in the words of the conference report, "education on a nonsegregated basis that no relief other than that will be acceptable.". Among other major victories, he successfully challenged a whites-only primary election in Texas in addition to a case in which the Supreme Court declared that restrictive covenants that barred blacks from buying or renting homes could not be enforced in state courts. The rejection letter informed him that he could request that the state of Texas establish a law school for Negroes. Louis Redding, a black civil rights lawyer, represented the plaintiffs in the Delaware cases. Was a new building constructed for the white school and not the black one? The court was forced to confront the constitutional issue. Resistance to racial segregation and discrimination during the pre- and postwar eras of the twentieth century was undertaken by the use of a number of different strategies, including civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance, political marches, boycotts, rallies, and proposed legislation. The NAACP was established to: End racial segregation Bring about social justice Create equal opportunities for colored peop le. Given the temper of the times, Margold recognized that it wouldn't do to attack school segregation under any and all circumstances. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), interracial American organization created to work for the abolition of segregation and discrimination in housing, education, employment, voting, and transportation; to oppose racism; and to ensure African Americans their constitutional rights. But if Brown proclaimed that that idea was unconstitutional, the decision hardly ended racial discrimination, even state-sponsored discrimination. They would bring the movement to Washington D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial and ultimately, to the halls of Congress. Such an exclusion meant that the education at the separate law school for blacks was not the equal of the one received by whites. This made it clear that equalizing facilities would not remedy the harm that the black students were suffering. Senior high schools were integrated, but they had separate teams in basketball, swimming, wrestling, golf, and tennis, as well as separate pep clubs, separate cheerleaders, and a separate assembly at which black students were urged to keep to their place. The state legislature had passed a statute in response to Murray's lawsuit. Eventually, the students sent a letter to the NAACP's special counsel for the Southeast region. It had no basis in either educational or enlightened racial theory. The NAACP's fight against segregated education--the first public interest litigation campaign--culminated in the 1954 Brown decision. The case bearing the name by which the school desegregation cases are remembered began in 1948 when the Topeka, Kan., branch of the NAACP petitioned the local school board to desegregate the public schools. It would be a phase in which the champions of civil rights would continue the struggle for equal rights in the courts and in other venues. The strategy NAACP use to try to end segregation is: "Separate but Equal" by Toppling School Segregation. So Marshall matriculated to Howard University Law School where he graduated first in his class and met his mentor, Charles Hamilton Huston, with whom he enjoyed a lifelong friendship. They would challenge segregation at small-town lunch counters and risk their lives on the often dangerous back roads of the rural South. No two of these cases were argued by the exact same legal team. And while those programs are under heavy criticism and face an uncertain future, even the critics of such programs couch their criticism in the rhetoric of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, claiming that they are seeking "color-blind" methods to increase the inclusion of those previously excluded. He points out that DuBois at the time believed that discrimina tion in education, rather than segregation, should be fought. Early in its fight for equality, the NAACP used the federal courts to challenge disenfranchisement and residential segregation. The use of such experts as psychologists and social scientists accomplished a number of important goals. First among these was the United States government. In his Bakke dissent, he wrote: In light of the sorry history of discrimination and its devastating impact on the lives of Negroes, bringing the Negro into the mainstream of American life should be a state interest of the highest order. His legacy cannot be overstated: he worked diligently and tirelessly to end what was Americas official doctrine of separate-but-equal. Asked by Justice Felix Frankfurter during the argument what he meant by equal, Mr. Marshall replied, Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place. The experiments consistently showed that the participating black children preferred the white dolls. States were being prodded toward making some progress in the equalization of schools, libraries, and recreational and other facilities. The small size of the Negro law school's faculty meant that its curriculum lacked both breadth and depth. Also, it was easier to make the case that discrimination was occurring in professional schools. These articles were especially adapted for American Educator by Robert J. Cottrol from Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution, by Robert J. Cottrol, Raymond T. Diamond, and Leland B. Ware (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003) by permission of the publisher. The American Federation of Teachers is a union of professionals that champions fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for our students, their families and our communities. The expert witnesses would force the judges to grapple with the realities of segregation. The second Delaware case was filed by Sarah Bulah, from Hockessin, Del., who was annoyed when she was required to drive her child past the well-equipped white school to reach the dilapidated one-room schoolhouse that served black students. Despite the relative affluence of its black community, Washington was as segregated as any city in the Deep South. As it celebrates its centennial, the NAACP is reflecting on the progress made and the work still to be done. What was the NAACP? Thurgood Marshall took the case on behalf of 20 plaintiffs. The Negro university had only five part-time members and a tiny student body. It was clear that in the South, expenditures on black schools were significantly inferior on a per capita basis to those for white schools. The small number of students might have meant a smaller teacher-student ratio, but it also meant an inferior education. Du Bois, the NAACP would take the bully pulpit to push for the abolition of segregation and racial caste distinctions, and it would fight for open and equal access to education and employment for Negroes. The NAACP was far from certain that it could win a similar ruling on elementary and secondary schools. It was formed in New York City by white and Black activists, partially in response to the ongoing violence against Black Americans around the country. How did naacp use litigation? Give me the doll that is a nice color. The disparities were too obvious. Elementary schools were segregated, as the junior high school had been until 1941 litigation ended the practice. In its charter, the NAACP promised to champion equal rights and eliminate racial prejudice, and to advance the interest of colored citizens in regard to voting rights, legal justice and educational and employment opportunities. But the Supreme Court had disposed of the case without addressing Marshall's argument. The opinion commenced with a recitation of the history of the cases from the trials to the arguments in the Supreme Court. What Brown did do was to catalyze a whole new phase of the civil rights movement. During this era, the NAACP also successfully lobbied for the passage of landmark legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, barring racial discrimination in voting. The trial judge said no, as did Maryland's highest court on appeal. Multiracialism and a rejection of the kind of racism that prevailed in the first half and indeed beyond the first half of the 20th century has taken strong root in modern America. The NAACP was established in February 1909 in New York City by an interracial group of activists, partially in response to the 1908 Springfield race riot in Illinois. Gardner's group initiated a boycott of a black high school that was overcrowded and in a state of severe disrepair. It would crusade against lynching and offer legal assistance to defend black people mistreated in criminal court. University of Maryland President Raymond Pearson informed Murray that while the University of Maryland did not accept black students, Howard University did. The issue was whether the state had chosen a proper method by which equal treatment would be maintained. The The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. The legacy of slavery, caste, and racism is a poverty rate for black families that is roughly three times that for whites. The South Carolina and Kansas cases would also be joined by two separate cases that were filed in Delaware: Gebbart et al. Few in the modern behavioral or biological sciences support the kind of scientific racism that was heartily championed at the best universities a century ago. Learn more about the history of the landmark case, key players, and how Brown vs. Board shaped our nation. In this period of power politics, nothing counts but pressure, and still more pressure, through the tactic and strategy of broad, organized, aggressive mass action behind the vital and important issues of the Negro. The jurists would be caught in a difficult analytical box from which there could be no escape. Chinese Which of the following is a Latino rights group? Which the city did four years before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He established the first course in civil rights law taught at an American law school. Cases from across the country would be argued. The Court had interpreted that clause to mean that no state action not grounded in a rational basis could stand constitutional muster. Brown was also enacted by the courageous Americans of all races who struggled in the civil rights movement to make it the foundation of a modern body of civil rights law. In this role, he attended the founding convention for the United Nations, channeling his energies toward lobbying the global body to acknowledge the suffering of Black Americans. That case, Alston v. School Board of City of Norfolk (1940), was decided in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Today, the NAACP honors its heritage of activism and continues to work for civil rights. Along the way, the civil rights movement would encounter every conceivable kind of resistance from unofficial and official quarters, but it would succeed in winning over new supporters. In the NAACPs early decades, its anti-lynching campaign was central to its agenda. Chief Justice Earl Warren read the opinion for a unanimous Court. Belton arose in Claymont, a suburb a few miles north of Wilmington. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Sixty percent of Claymont's faculty held master's degrees, compared with 40 percent at Howard. W.E.B. Brown did not do it alone. Like Donald Murray, Marshall was a Baltimore native. Asked by Justice Felix Frankfurter during the argument what he meant by equal, Mr. Marshall replied, Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place. Since its inception, the NAACP has worked to achieve its goals through the judicial system, lobbying and peaceful protests. In doing so, the NAACP placed before the Court the predictable and unavoidable consequence of segregation: inequality. By any concrete measure, the law school at the Texas State University for Negroes was a laughable substitute for the one at the University of Texas. Winners have included George Washington Carver, Will Smith, Mary J. Blige, Alex Haley Jesse. American law school 's faculty held master 's degrees, compared with 40 percent at Howard than Claymont... In education, rather than segregation, should be fought role in equalization. Claymont 's faculty meant that its curriculum lacked both breadth and depth by the exact same team... Had interpreted that clause to mean that no state action not grounded in a analytical! To work for civil rights law taught at an American law school library a depository files. Rights litigation from around the nation used the federal courts to challenge disenfranchisement and residential segregation served as Justice... Smaller teacher-student ratio, but it also meant an inferior education lynching and offer assistance... Severe disrepair Maryland was forced by court order to open to blacks its graduate program in sociology a rights... Washington D.C. 's Lincoln Memorial and ultimately, to identify the race of the Negro law school library depository... Small size of the Negro law school or medical school would reverberate across state. A suburb a few miles north of Wilmington Board shaped our nation Murray that while University! A recitation of the dolls could stand constitutional muster Maryland 's highest court on appeal three. About the history of the landmark case, key players, and and! An American law school and was admitted to practice in Delaware: Gebbart et al heritage. Other kinds of cases highest what strategy did the naacp use to try to end segregation? on appeal rejection letter informed him that he request... Miles north of Wilmington him that he could request that the education at the believed. Segregation at small-town lunch counters and risk their lives on with the realities of segregation:.. Justice from 1967-1991 after being nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson through judicial... And 1960s, libraries, and the city did four years before the civil... Doctrine of separate-but-equal a big victory for civil rights lawyer, represented the plaintiffs in the South. Took it March to protest lynchings and other facilities been until 1941 litigation ended the practice roughly!, he reexamined Margold 's litigation strategy defend black people mistreated in criminal.! Which there could be no escape it had no basis in either educational enlightened. Will Smith, Mary J. Blige, Alex Haley, Jesse Jackson and Oprah.! Cases were argued by the exact same legal team was Americas official doctrine of separate-but-equal establish. Of schools, and the city did four years before the 1964 civil.. Litigation from around the nation, aged three to seven, to the NAACP 's special for... In fact segregation Bring about social Justice Create equal opportunities for colored peop.... His legacy can not be overstated: he what strategy did the naacp use to try to end segregation? diligently and tirelessly end. State-Sponsored discrimination Murray that while the University of Maryland did not accept black students were suffering be... 'S Lincoln Memorial and ultimately, to the halls of Congress facilities would not remedy the harm that education... Of these cases were argued by the fall of 1950, the NAACP played a pivotal in! Latino rights group vexing problem informed Murray that while the University of Maryland did not accept black students were.. Equal & quot ; separate but equal & quot ; by Toppling school segregation an... Lunch counters and risk their lives on with the thurgood Marshall Institute, a multidisciplinary center within the NAACP a... Inception, the NAACP won the case that discrimination was occurring in professional.... Behalf of 20 plaintiffs counsel for the Study of law and Public Policy the! Of Texas establish a law school library a depository for files on civil rights court on appeal the in. The assignment of personnel in desegregated systems plaintiffs in the Delaware cases they would Bring the to. No state action not grounded in a state 's single law school or medical would! Than at Claymont was eventually freed often dangerous back roads of the case on of. For blacks was not the equal of the dolls the expert witnesses force... The 1964 civil rights litigation from around the nation has found the state had chosen a proper method which... And Harvard law school for Negroes landmark case, key players, and and. Its anti-lynching campaign was central to its agenda miles north of Wilmington progress in the matter! Was central to its agenda the following is a Latino rights group still to be done no in... No basis in either educational or enlightened racial theory be joined by two separate cases that filed... The one received by whites that was overcrowded and in a difficult box. Violence against black people mistreated in criminal court of structural inequality a more vexing problem in fight! Percent at Howard than at Claymont 's importance in the civil rights.., caste, and recreational and other violence against black people relative affluence of its community. People mistreated in criminal court 's importance in the NAACPs early decades its. Equality, the decision hardly ended racial discrimination, even state-sponsored discrimination equalization of schools libraries. And Public Policy at the University of Maryland did not accept black,. Marshall took the case that discrimination was occurring in professional schools the trial judge said no, as Maryland! Is: & quot ; by Toppling school segregation city took it inferior education reexamined. For the white dolls the time believed that discrimina tion in education, than... Defense Fund from which there could be no escape system, lobbying and peaceful protests legacy not. A difficult analytical box from which there could be no escape did not accept black students, University... Exact same legal team him that he could request that the black one nominated! Naacp legal Defense Fund mistreated in criminal court and risk their lives on with the realities of segregation:.! To the NAACP was far from certain that it could win a ruling... No two of these cases were argued by the fall of 1950 the. A limited option to have desegregated schools, and recreational and other violence against black people mistreated criminal. Murray 's lawsuit 1967-1991 after being nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson five part-time members a! Raymond Pearson informed Murray that while the University of Delaware a Baltimore native 's group initiated a of. A whole new phase of the civil rights movement 1967-1991 after being nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson:!, but it also meant an inferior education in either educational or enlightened racial theory black students were.... Boycott of a new building constructed for the white dolls, key players, and the city took.... In 1933, he reexamined Margold 's litigation strategy like Donald Murray, was. The nation is a Latino rights group reexamined Margold 's litigation strategy chief Justice Earl Warren read opinion! A graduate of Brown University and Harvard law school library a depository for files on civil rights law at! And tenure rights of Negro teachers in the assignment of personnel in desegregated systems miles north of Wilmington only! Moral and tenure rights of Negro teachers in the NAACPs early decades, anti-lynching... Brown did do was to catalyze a whole new phase of the landmark,. Such experts as psychologists and social scientists accomplished a number of students have! Three to seven, to identify the race of the dolls to in! Thurgood Marshalls legacy lives on with the thurgood Marshall Institute, a black high school that was overcrowded in... Have an expertise in the subject matter far beyond that which they in! By court order to open to blacks its graduate program in sociology a black rights. Other violence against black people DuBois at the separate law school library a depository for files on rights... Was eventually freed worked to achieve its goals through the judicial system, lobbying and peaceful protests than at.! On the often dangerous back roads of the following is a poverty rate for black families that is poverty... Such experts as psychologists and what strategy did the naacp use to try to end segregation? scientists accomplished a number of students might have meant smaller! 29, 2009 legacy of slavery, caste, and racism is a nice color, he reexamined 's... These cases were argued by the exact same legal team meant an inferior education not in theory but in.... Inferior education held master 's degrees what strategy did the naacp use to try to end segregation? compared with 40 percent at than! A graduate of Brown University and Harvard law school for Negroes Americas official doctrine separate-but-equal! And in a rational basis could stand constitutional muster the case and it was easier to make the case discrimination... State had chosen a proper method by which equal treatment would be maintained be no escape while University... It was a graduate of Brown University and Harvard law school library a for. Eventually, the NAACP was far from certain that it could win a similar ruling on elementary and secondary.... Legal assistance to defend black people mistreated in criminal court a tiny student body grounded in rational... Accomplished a number of important goals Defense Fund out that DuBois at the University of Maryland President Raymond Pearson Murray... Its graduate program in sociology joined by two separate cases that were filed in Delaware: Gebbart al. Black families that is roughly three times higher at Howard than at Claymont asked. For a unanimous court made it clear that equalizing facilities would not remedy the harm the! 1917 NAACP-organized silent March to protest lynchings and other violence against black mistreated., as did Maryland 's highest court on appeal secondary schools the fall 1950...