who was chief attorney for the naacp when it challenged the doctrine of "sepreate but equal."

by Mr. Major Vandervort IV 5 min read

Charles Hamilton Houston

Full Answer

Who was involved in the legal strategy of the NAACP?

Shortly after Sweatt, Marshall, 43 other attorneys, and 14 branch and local NAACP presidents convened to develop the next phase of the legal strategy. Marshall had traditionally been cautious. He believed that cases involving segregated public schools were cases that the NAACP could not afford to lose, as they would set devastating precedents.

What was the NAACP's argument for segregation?

The NAACP argued that there was no "valid legislative end" that justified racial segregation, that segregation was arbitrary and irrational. This argument also concerned the equal protection clause, for a racial classification that was arbitrary and irrational could not satisfy the demands of the equal protection clause either.

What was the significance of Sweatt v NAACP?

Sweatt was an important step in the fight to end segregation, but it applied only to law schools. The NAACP was far from certain that it could win a similar ruling on elementary and secondary schools. An additional important point should be made.

Who is the Solicitor General for the NAACP?

Solicitor General Philip Perlman filed an amicus brief supporting the NAACP's position on behalf of the Truman administration.

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Who was the attorney who successfully argued this case for the naacp?

Marshall was the Court's first African American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education....Thurgood MarshallNominated byJohn F. KennedyPreceded bySeat establishedSucceeded byWilfred FeinbergPersonal details22 more rows

Did Thurgood Marshall disagree with MLK?

As an attorney fighting to secure equality and justice through the courts, Thurgood Marshall helped build the legal foundation for Martin Luther King's challenges to segregation.

What did Charles Hamilton Houston accomplish?

Charles Hamilton Houston, (born September 3, 1895, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 22, 1950, Washington, D.C.), American lawyer and educator instrumental in laying the legal groundwork that led to U.S. Supreme Court rulings outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

Why did Charles Hamilton Houston become a lawyer?

Houston is also well known for having trained and mentored a generation of black attorneys, including Thurgood Marshall, future founder and director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the first Black Supreme Court Justice....Charles Hamilton HoustonOccupationLawyer5 more rows

Who was the first African American Supreme Court justice?

Thurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall was the first African American to serve as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. He joined the Court in 1967, the year this photo was taken. On October 2, 1967, Thurgood Marshall took the judicial oath of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Black person to serve on the Court.

Did Thurgood Marshall represent Rosa Parks?

The legal aspect of Mrs. Parks' challenge to segregation was developed by local Montgomery attorney Fred Gray and by Thurgood Marshall, founder and then-Director-Counsel of LDF.

Who headed the NAACP legal team that challenged the constitutionality of segregation in a series of Court cases beginning in the 1940s?

When Did Thurgood Marshall Establish the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund? 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.

Who is Thurgood Marshall What was his involvement in the Brown case?

Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher Education (1950). Having won these cases, and thus, establishing precedents for chipping away Jim Crow laws in higher education, Marshall succeeded in having the Supreme Court declare segregated public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

What did Thurgood Marshall do in the civil rights movement?

Thurgood Marshall was a civil rights lawyer who used the courts to fight Jim Crow and dismantle segregation in the U.S. Marshall was a towering figure who became the nation's first Black United States Supreme Court Justice. He is best known for arguing the historic 1954 Brown v.

Who was Thurgood Marshall and how did he become involved with Houston and the NAACP?

In 1936 Marshall became a staff lawyer under Houston for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); in 1938 he became the lead chair in the legal office of the NAACP, and two years later he was named chief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Which of the following names an NAACP member who became the first African-American Supreme Court justice?

Thurgood Marshall is a famous NAACP lawyer who became the first African American Supreme Court justice.

Who is Charles Hamilton in Gone with the Wind?

Randy Boone, one of the officers who take in an orphaned boy and his dog in the television series ''Rin Tin Tin. '' But it was as Charles Hamilton, Melanie Wilkes's doomed brother in ''Gone With the Wind,'' that he achieved screen immortality. Mr.

Who was the leader of the NAACP?

Diamond, and Leland B. Ware. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in 1909 to fight Jim Crow, 20th-century America's experience with petty and not so petty apartheid. Under the leadership of W.E.B. Du Bois, the NAACP would take the bully pulpit to push for the abolition ...

What was the NAACP dealing with?

Professional schools offered a more tempting target: The NAACP was dealing with total exclusion; the state provided a law school or a medical school, but only for whites.

What was the name of the law school that Sweatt applied to?

Sweatt was a letter carrier who lived in Texas. In 1946 he applied to the all-white law school at the University of Texas. He was immediately rejected. The rejection letter informed him that he could request that the state of Texas establish a law school for Negroes. The NAACP filed suit in state court on Sweatt's behalf. The results were familiar. The trial court opinion stated that state officials were under no obligation to admit him to the University of Texas. The opinion allowed state officials six months to establish a black law school. Just before the six months were up, the state presented the trial court with evidence that it had established the Jim Crow law school. The school was housed in two rented rooms in Houston. Administratively, the school was part of Prairie View University, a Texas state university for Negroes, some 40 miles away. The faculty consisted of two part-time instructors. There was no library.

What does the NAACP's "valid legislative end" mean?

The NAACP argued that there was no "valid legislative end" that justified racial segregation, that segregation was arbitrary and irrational.

What was the significance of the correspondence between Murray and University of Maryland officials?

The correspondence between Murray and University of Maryland officials allowed the NAACP to focus on the issue of segregation. Maryland was willing to provide a state-supported legal education for Murray, but not in Maryland and not at the state university. NAACP lawyers brought the case in state court.

Who was the first NAACP staff attorney?

In 1931, the NAACP's first staff attorney, Nathan Margold, outlined a legal strategy to challenge school segregation. His strategy was part direct, part circumspect. Given the temper of the times, Margold recognized that it wouldn't do to attack school segregation under any and all circumstances.

Who succeeded Margold as the NAACP's chief attorney?

In 1933, Charles Hamilton Houston succeeded Margold as the NAACP's chief attorney. Houston was a man of extraordinary brilliance.

Who was the NAACP executive secretary?

In 1930, Walter White became the NAACP’s national executive secretary. Under White’s leadership, which lasted until 1955, the NAACP began focusing its legal challenges on five areas: voting rights, housing discrimination, equality of due process, segregation in institutions of higher education in the South, and segregation in elementary and secondary education. Legalized racial discrimination (also known as Jim Crow laws) prohibited black and white people from using the same water fountains, attending the same public schools, and having access to the same public accommodations, including restaurants, public libraries, and buses.

What did the NAACP do?

From the 1920s through the 1950s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pushed the country toward racial equality through organized protests and highly strategic law suits that challenged the racist laws that promoted discrimination against blacks. The organization was founded in 1909, and from its inception it was devoted to the fight against legalized racial discrimination.

What was the Jim Crow law?

Jim Crow laws restricted the educational opportunities of black Americans by requiring racially segregated elementary, secondary, and undergraduate education. The NAACP’s challenge against unequal educational opportunities is most famously illustrated by the case known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. This landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws permitting government support of racial segregation in public schools.

Why was Sweatt denied admission to law school?

Painter, Herman Sweatt, a black American, was denied admission to the University of Texas Law School on the grounds that substantially equivalent facilities were offered by a law school open only to blacks (thus meeting the requirements of the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson). At the time the plaintiff first applied to the University of Texas, there was no law school in Texas that admitted blacks. The Texas trial court, instead of granting the plaintiff a writ of mandamus (a court order from a superior court to a lower or trial court to comply with a legal command in order to safeguard an individual’s legal interest), postponed the trial for six months, allowing the state time to create a law school only for blacks. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a trial court opinion that the newly established state law school for black Americans met the “separate but equal” judicial doctrine prevailing after Plessy v. Ferguson.

When did the Supreme Court concur with Harlan's opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson?

It would not be until the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 , at the dawn of the civil rights movement, that the majority of the Supreme Court would essentially concur with Harlan’s opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson ..

Who was the judge that Plessy sued?

Convicted by a New Orleans court of violating the 1890 law, Plessy filed a petition against the presiding judge, Hon. John H. Ferguson, claiming that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Recommended for you.

What was the significance of Plessy v. Ferguson?

Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people.

What was the Black resistance to segregation?

As Southern Black people witnessed with horror the dawn of the Jim Crow era, members of the Black community in New Orleans decided to mount a resistance. At the heart of the case that became Plessy v. Ferguson was a law passed in Louisiana in 1890 “providing for separate railway carriages for ...

What rights does the 14th amendment protect?

In declaring separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads, the Court ruled that the protections of 14th Amendment applied only to political and civil rights (like voting and jury service), not “social rights” (sitting in the railroad car of your choice).

What happened after the compromise of 1877?

After the Compromise of 1877 led to the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, Democrats consolidated control of state legislatures throughout the region, effectively marking the end of Reconstruction.

When was the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson?

Then, on May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Plessy v. Ferguson.

When was the separate but equal doctrine overruled?

The “separate but equal” doctrine introduced by the decision in this case was used for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws until 1954, when it was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

What is the purpose of the Separate but Equal doctrine?

Implementation of the “separate but equal” doctrine gave constitutional sanction to laws designed to achieve racial segregation by means of separate and equal public facilities and services for African Americans and whites. The “separate but equal” doctrine introduced by the decision in this case was used for assessing the constitutionality ...

What did Homer Plessy argue about the Louisiana Railroad?

Homer Plessy argued that the state law which required Louisiana Railroad to segregate trains has denied him his rights under Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution.

What is the significance of Brown v. Board of Education?

By this decision the Supreme Court unanimously declared that racial segregation of children in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This groundbreaking and for many a life changing decision was rendered om May 17, 1954.

What were the laws that were enforced by the Jim Crow?

Enforced by criminal penalties, these laws created separate schools, parks, waiting rooms, and other segregated public accommodations.

What was the Brown v Board of Education?

Brown v. Board of Education did more than reverse the “separate but equal” doctrine. It reversed centuries of segregation practice in the United States. This decision became the cornerstone of the social justice movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

What happened during the reconstruction?

During the Reconstruction, the federal government granted the right to vote to African Americans in the South and provided some equal protection to African American citizens. As Reconstruction failed in 1877 the movement for the rights of African American’s stalled.

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The Right Leadership

  • In 1930, Walter White became the NAACP’s national executive secretary. Under White’s leadership, which lasted until 1955, the NAACP began focusing its legal challenges on five areas: voting rights, housing discrimination, equality of due process, segregation in institutions of higher education in the South, and segregation in elementary and seconda...
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Brown v. Board of Education

  • Jim Crow laws restricted the educational opportunities of black Americans by requiring racially segregated elementary, secondary, and undergraduate education. The NAACP’s challenge against unequal educational opportunities is most famously illustrated by the case known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. This landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court struck …
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Legal Strategies

  • 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. Increasingly, access to the courts became a formal method of resistance to segregation and a d…
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Smith v. Allwright

  • Because Jim Crow laws were predominately enacted by states and local governments in the South, the NAACP necessarily involved litigants in southern states. The 1944 case of Smith v. Allwright set the stage for Brown v. Board of Education ten years later. The case involved a black Texas voter, Lonnie E. Smith, who sued for the right to vote in a primary election conducted by th…
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Shelley v. Kraemer

  • In another case, NAACP lawyers raised the issue of whether the use of a private agreement or contract could insulate a state from the reach of the federal Constitution. In 1945 a black family by the name of Shelley purchased a house in St. Louis, Missouri, but a “restrictive covenant” had been placed on the property in 1911. Restrictive covenants were used to limit an owner’s right t…
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Sweatt v. Painter

  • In Sweatt v. Painter, Herman Sweatt, a black American, was denied admission to the University of Texas Law School on the grounds that substantially equivalent facilities were offered by a law school open only to blacks (thus meeting the requirements of the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson). At the time the plaintiff first applied to the University of Texas, there was no law scho…
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Bibliography

  • Abernathy, Charles. 2006. Civil Rights and Constitutional Litigation: Cases and Materials. 4thd ed. American Casebook Series. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company. Alderman, Ellen, and Caroline Kennedy. 1991. In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action. New York: William Morrow. Ball, Edward. 2001. The Sweet Hell Inside: A Family History.New York: William Morrow. Bell, Derrick. …
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