The Brown Legacy: A Timeline of Major Events
1896:
Plessy v. Ferguson upholds separate-but-equal law of Louisiana
1940:
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund established under leadership of
Thurgood Marshall to challenge separate-but-equal in federal courts.
• Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)
• McLaurin v. Oklahoma (1950)
• Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
1954:
Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plessy finding separate-but-equal violates the
14th Amendment guarantee of Equal Protection.
Bolling v. Sharpe separate-but-equal violates the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due
process (consolidated with Brown for remedial issues).
1955:
Brown II: desegregation to proceed with “all deliberate speed”
Emmett Till lynched
1955-6:
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott
Martin Luther King emerges as a leader in civil rights movement.
1957:
President Eisenhower orders National Guard to Little Rock, Arkansas, to escort nine
Black students to Central High School to enforce Brown.
1958:
Cooper v. Aaron reaffirms the law of the land nationwide and explicitly states the duty
of state office holders to enforce Brown
1959:
Prince Edward County, Virginia, closes all of its public schools rather than desegregate them.
1960:
Sit-ins at segregated lunch counters
Boynton v. Virginia finds African American has a federal statutory right to be served
without discrimination at a restaurant located in an interstate bus terminal.
1961:
Freedom Rides to integrate Southern bus terminals
1962:
Forcible integration of Ole Miss
1963:
Birmingham campaign to end segregation leads to police riots.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
1964:
Passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964
Freedom Summer
Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County rules the Equal Protection Clause
of the 14th Amendment prohibits appropriating public money to support private,
segregated education.
1965:
Passage of Voting Rights Act
1967:
Loving v. Virginia rules Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage is unconstitutional.
Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
1968:
Martin Luther King assassinated
Poor People’s March on Washington and Resurrection City
Fair Housing Act bans discrimination in housing.
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, VA mandates elimination of vestiges
of segregation “root and branch.”
1969:
Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education requires every school district to terminate
dual school systems at once and to operate now and hereafter only unitary schools—
schools in which no person is to be effectively excluded…because of race or color.
1971:
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education permits busing to achieve
desegregation.
1973:
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez finds education is not a fundamental
right under the U.S. Constitution.
Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1 finds de facto segregation does not violate equal
protection.
1974:
Milliken v. Bradley rules interdistrict desegregation plans are unconstitutional.
1976:
Court rules equal protection clause limited to intentional discrimination in Washington
v. Davis.
First Circuit relies on Keyes to affirm a comprehensive plan to ameliorate pervasive
and persistent constitutional infirmities throughout the Boston public schools in
Morgan v. Kerrigan.
1977:
Milliken II rules state can be required to fund desegregation plans.
1978:
Baake v. Regents of University of California rules schools can take race into account in
admissions, but cannot use quotas.
1986:
Riddick v. School Board of the City of Norfolk declares school district desegregated and
reverts back to local control with elimination of desegregation plan.
1991:
Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell finds school districts can stop busing
when they become resegregated because of private housing choices and when all
“practicable” steps have been taken to eliminate segregation.
1996:
Fifth Circuit rules affirmative action plan in Texas universities is unconstitutional in
Hopwood v. Texas; Supreme Court declines to hear case.
California adopts Proposition 209 banning all forms of affirmative action.
1997:
Ninth Circuit affirms constitutionality of Proposition 209; Supreme Court declines to
hear case.
1999:
30 years of court-supervised desegregation ends in Charlotte-Mecklenburg school
district.
2003:
Grutter v. Bollinger upholds University of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action
program based on race as part of overall purpose of obtaining a diverse student body
and where selection is individualized, but takes race into account.
Gratz v. Bollinger strikes down University of Michigan’s undergraduate affirmative
action program based on race in which points were added to a composite score
based solely on race without individualized assessment.
Source: Howard University School of Law, “Brown @ 50: Fulfilling the Promise,”
www.brownat50.org/brownChrono/BrownChronology.htm