L: 1950s QUEST FOR EQUALITY

1950: The LEGAL BATLE BEGINS 

when Attorney Thurgood Marshall wins his 1st case before the U S Supreme Court (Sweatt VS Painter). Herman Sweatt had been denied admission to the University of Texas law school because he was black.  In 1951 Thurgood Marshall represents

 Linda Brown, an 8-year old black girl living within walking distance of an all white elementary school forced to take a bus to "the black school."   On May 17, 1954 the U S Supreme Court ruled that "SEPERATE BUT EQUAL LAWS" pertaining to education violated the U S Constitution.

"WE SHALL OVERCOME"  (Pete Seeger) was beginning to be a reality. 

In Montgomery, Alabama on April 29, 1955 , a city bus driver, routinely enforcing the law, made Aurelia Broder stand so that a white man could have her seat.  On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks is arrested for sitting  in the front of a city bus in Montgomery.  Her arrest leads to a city wide bus boycott coordinated by Martin Luther King, Jr.(whose house is bombed on January 30, 1956 ).   On February 1, 1956 Aurelia Broder, and 4 other woman , file a federal civil lawsuit against the mayor, William Gayle, challenging the constitutionality of the Alabama law.  Alabama appeals its loss to the U S Supreme Court which rules on December 20, 1956 that the Alabama law Is unconstitutional. (Broder vs Gayle)

January 1957 Martin Luther King, Jr leads 60 black pastors & civil rights leaders to form Southern Christian Leadership Council and commit to NON violent protests.

September 1957 Nine black high school students integrating all white Central High School are threatened by mobs.  Governor refuses to protect them so President Eisenhower sends US troops.

September 1957  New law is designed to protect voting rights and to allow for federal prosecution.

  Thurgood Marshall(1908 -1993) was the grandson of an escaped slave.  He was denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School because he was black and graduated from Howard University School of Law.  In 1940 he founded  the LEGAL DEFENSE  FUND of the NAACP.  He won 29 of 32 cases before the US Supreme Court.  He served as the first BLACK Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991.