who was the naacp attorney who led courtroom battles to abolish segregated schools

by Guadalupe Hyatt 6 min read

The first general counsel of NAACP, Charles Hamilton Houston exposed the hollowness of the "separate but equal" doctrine and paved the way for the Supreme Court ruling outlawing school segregation.

What did the NAACP do to end segregation?

established the "separate but equal" doctrine Plessy vs Ferguson NAACP attorney/lawyer who led courtroom battles against segreation Thurgood Marshall Supreme Court Case ruled that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional Brown v. Board of Education The first black students to integrate an Arkansas high school Little Rock Nine

What was the first case the NAACP fought for civil rights?

Led initially by Charles Houston and later by Thurgood Marshall, NAACP attorneys started the legal battle by focusing on graduate and professional school education. They believed that winning legal battles for integration at this level would be easiest and would create the legal basis for a broader attack on racial segregation at all levels.

Who was responsible for the desegregation of schools in America?

Thurgood Marshall was an NAACP attorney who led courtroom battles against segregation. He later became a Supreme Court justice.

Who was the plaintiff in the Brown v Board of Education?

On the third day of the strike, the students called the only lawyer they knew, a man named Spottswood Robinson, who worked with the NAACP. A month later, attorneys out of New York with the NAACP...

image

Who led the naacp Court fight against school segregation?

Thurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, served as chief attorney for the plaintiffs. (Thirteen years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson would appoint Marshall as the first Black Supreme Court justice.)Jan 11, 2022

Who was the naacp lead attorney?

Thurgood MarshallThurgood 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 the lead lawyer for the naacp in the Brown case?

Thurgood MarshallThe NAACP and Thurgood Marshall took up Brown's case along with similar cases in South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware as Brown v. Board of Education. Oliver Brown died in 1961. Born in 1917, Robert Carter, who served as an attorney for the plaintiffs in Briggs v.Jun 8, 2021

Who was the lawyer who argued for the end to segregated schools?

As a lawyer and judge, Thurgood Marshall strived to protect the rights of all citizens. His legacy earned him the nickname "Mr.

Which civil rights leader led the Montgomery bus boycott?

Martin Luther King, Jr.The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery.

Is Sam Friedman a real person?

In addition, Friedman was a Connecticut lawyer who was familiar with Connecticut laws....Marshall (2017)REEL FACE:REAL FACE:Josh Gad Born: February 23, 1981 Birthplace: Hollywood, Florida, USASam Friedman Born: January 5, abt 1904 Death: November 25, 1994, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA Attorney Hired by NAACP11 more rows

Who served as the lead lawyer for the naacp and oversaw cases like Davis v County School Board of Prince Edward and Brown v. Board of Education?

After winning a federal appeals court ruling in 1940, Hill became an NAACP attorney in Virginia. He was one of the leading lawyers in Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward, one of five suits that were consolidated into the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954).

Who was the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice?

Justice Thurgood MarshallJustice Thurgood Marshall: First African American Supreme Court Justice. On June 13, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated distinguished civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American justice to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Who signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

President Lyndon JohnsonOn July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, calling on U.S. citizens to “eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in America.” The act became the most sweeping civil rights legislation of the century.Jan 29, 2021

Who were the attorneys on Brown versus the Board of Education?

The U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, was bundled with four related cases and a decision was rendered on May 17, 1954. Three lawyers, Thurgood Marshall (center), chief counsel for the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund and lead attorney on the Briggs case, with George E. C. Hayes (left) and James M.

What was Thurgood Marshall's argument against segregation?

When the case went to the Supreme Court, Marshall argued that school segregation was a violation of individual rights under the 14th Amendment. He also asserted that the only justification for continuing to have separate schools was to keep people who were slaves "as near that stage as possible."Dec 8, 2003

What were the naacp lawyers fighting for in Brown vs Board of Education 1954?

offered to African Americans was inferior to that offered to whites, the NAACP's main argument was that segregation by its nature was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. A U.S. district court heard Brown v. Board of Education in 1951, and it ruled against the plaintiffs.

Why was Plessy arrested?

Plessy, contending that the Louisiana law separating blacks from whites on trains violated the "equal protection clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, decided to fight his arrest in court. By 1896, his case had made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

What did the Plessy decision mean?

The Plessy Decision. Although the Declaration of Independence stated that "All men are created equal," due to the institution of slavery, this statement was not to be grounded in law in the United States until after the Civil War (and, arguably, not completely fulfilled for many years thereafter). In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified ...

Which amendment was passed to end slavery?

In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified and finally put an end to slavery. Moreover, the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) strengthened the legal rights of newly freed slaves by stating, among other things, that no state shall deprive anyone of either "due process of law" or of the "equal protection of the law.".

Who was the head of the NAACP?

From 1935 to 1938, the legal arm of the NAACP was headed by Charles Hamilton Houston. Houston, together with Thurgood Marshall, devised a strategy to attack Jim Crow laws by striking at them where they were perhaps weakest—in the field of education.

What was the NAACP's main goal in the 1930s?

Despite the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy and similar cases, many people continued to press for the abolition of Jim Crow and other racially discriminatory laws. One particular organization that fought for racial equality was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded in 1909. For about the first 20 years of its existence, it tried to persuade Congress and other legislative bodies to enact laws that would protect African Americans from lynchings and other racist actions. Beginning in the 1930s, though, the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund began to turn to the courts to try to make progress in overcoming legally sanctioned discrimination. From 1935 to 1938, the legal arm of the NAACP was headed by Charles Hamilton Houston. Houston, together with Thurgood Marshall, devised a strategy to attack Jim Crow laws by striking at them where they were perhaps weakest—in the field of education. Although Marshall played a crucial role in all of the cases listed below, Houston was the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund while Murray v. Maryland and Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada were decided. After Houston returned to private practice in 1938, Marshall became head of the Fund and used it to argue the cases of Sweat v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher Education .

What did the NAACP do in the 1950s?

Painter (1950) Encouraged by their victory in Gaines' case, the NAACP continued to attack legally sanctioned racial discrimination in higher education. In 1946, an African American man named Heman Sweat applied to the University of Texas' "white" law school.

What did George McLaurin do to his academic career?

In 1949, the University of Oklahoma admitted George McLaurin, an African American, to its doctoral program. However, it required him to sit apart from the rest of his class, eat at a separate time and table from white students, etc. McLaurin, stating that these actions were both unusual and resulting in adverse effects on his academic pursuits, sued to put an end to these practices. McLaurin employed Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund to argue his case, a case which eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In an opinion delivered on the same day as the decision in Sweat, the Court stated that the University's actions concerning McLaurin were adversely affecting his ability to learn and ordered that they cease immediately.

Why was Rosa Parks arrested?

Rosa Parks, a black NAACP worker, was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white passenger. To protest Parks's arrest, thousands of African Americans stopped riding buses in Montgomery.

What was the purpose of the 1963 March on Washington?

The purpose of the 1963 March on Washington was to. show support for President Kennedy's civil rights bill. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. at the March on Washington.

Where were the Little Rock Nine?

The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine outstanding black students who were allowed to attend a formerly segregated high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. They faced opposition from white students and the governor of Arkansas.

Why did the Freedom Rides happen?

The Freedom Rides were a series of protests in which black and white bus riders traveled together to segregated bus stations in the South. White riders planned to use the facilities set aside for African Americans and the African Americans planned to use the "white" facilities. Freedom Riders wanted to put pressure on President Kennedy ...

What was the first sit in?

The first sit-in took place at a Woolworth's department store. The sit-ins were staged by students who wanted to challenge the segregation of private businesses.

What was the goal of the NAACP?

The lawyers would attack Plessy directly, and force the courts, and the nation, to either defend segregation openly, or make the United States true to its principles. Full and immediate desegregation was now the official goal of the NAACP.

What was the NAACP case?

Known as Brown v.

What is the Brown v Board of Education case?

Known as Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas, the cases overturned decades of legally-sanctioned racial segregation in the United States, and became widely known as the most significant Supreme Court case in American history. “Separate but Equal”. Since the infamous Plessy decision in 1896, which gave legal sanction to racial segregation ...

What was the Brown decision?

The Brown decision has since been known as the single most important Supreme Court decision in American history. The Aftermath. The NAACP had won the battle, but the fight was not yet over. The Court worried about resistance of the south to its ruling.

What was the Brown v Board of Education case?

Brown v Board of Education is a landmark case in the African American struggle against segregation in America. In 1954 most schools in the South were racially segregated. In Brown v Board of Education the Supreme Court reversed the 1896 case of Plessy v Ferguson which held that as long as equal facilities are provided for whites and colored people, segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. Plessy v Ferguson institutionalized discrimination and segregation of the races under what is known as Jim Crow Laws. Brown v Board of Education declared Plessy unconstitutional calling for the desegregation of schools and putting racial equality back into the Constitution.

Who was the lead counsel in the Brown case?

Thurgood Marshall, who became the first African American Supreme Court justice in 1967, was the lead counsel for the Brown case. The Plaintiff was Oliver Brown father of Linda Brown, an elementary school student, who had been forced to travel to a far away school when an “all white” school was closer. Boiling v.

What was the Supreme Court's decision in Cooper v Aaron?

Aaron case the Supreme Court held that all states are bound by the Court’s decision and that its interpretation of the Constitution is the “supreme law of the land”.

image

Early Cases

  • Despite the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy and similar cases, many people continued to press for the abolition of Jim Crow and other racially discriminatory laws. One particular organization that fought for racial equality was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded in 1909. For about the first 20 years of its existence, it tried to persuad…
See more on uscourts.gov

Murray v. Maryland

  • Disappointed that the University of Maryland School of Law was rejecting black applicants solely because of their race, beginning in 1933 Thurgood Marshall (who was himself rejected from this law school because of its racial acceptance policies) decided to challenge this practice in the Maryland court system. Before a Baltimore City Court in 1935, Marshall argued that Donald Gain…
See more on uscourts.gov

Missouri Ex Rel Gaines v. Canada

  • Beginning in 1936, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund decided to take on the case of Lloyd Gaines, a graduate student of Lincoln University (an all-black college) who applied to the University of Missouri Law School but was denied because of his race. The State of Missouri gave Gaines the option of either attending an all-black law school that it would build (Missouri did not …
See more on uscourts.gov

Sweat v. Painter

  • Encouraged by their victory in Gaines' case, the NAACP continued to attack legally sanctioned racial discrimination in higher education. In 1946, an African American man named Heman Sweat applied to the University of Texas' "white" law school. Hoping that it would not have to admit Sweat to the "white" law school if a "black" school already existed, elsewhere on the University's …
See more on uscourts.gov

Mclaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher Education

  • In 1949, the University of Oklahoma admitted George McLaurin, an African American, to its doctoral program. However, it required him to sit apart from the rest of his class, eat at a separate time and table from white students, etc. McLaurin, stating that these actions were both unusual and resulting in adverse effects on his academic pursuits, sued to put an end to these practices…
See more on uscourts.gov

Brown v. Board of Education

  • The case that came to be known as Brown v. Board of Education was actually the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. These cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Bolling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart …
See more on uscourts.gov