Brown: A Landmark Case

This video segment describes the players and events of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and how it galvanized the Civil Rights movement as well as white resistance.

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Constance Baker Motley

In this transcript of an interview for Eyes on the Prize, Justice Constance Baker Motley recalls her role as an NAACP attorney in landmark school desegregation cases.

A Country Preacher: Rev. De Laine

In this video segment produced for the Levine Museum of the New South, the Reverend Joseph De Laine's son and daughter describe his role in the first public school desegregation lawsuit.

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Documenting Brown 1: The Fourteenth Amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment established the equal protection clause, later used in key desegregation cases.

Documenting Brown 2: Plessy v. Ferguson

The Supreme Court's 1896 ruling legalized the "separate but equal" doctrine that sanctioned segregation.

Documenting Brown 3: Gong Lum v. Rice

The Supreme Court's 1927 opinion in Gong Lum v. Rice affirmed legalized school segregation.

Documenting Brown 4: Mendez v. Westminster

This 1946 federal court ruling marked a victory for Mexican Americans and chipped away at the "separate but equal" doctrine, declaring segregated schools based on national origin unconstitutional.

Documenting Brown 5: Brown v. Board of Education, 1954

The Supreme Court's landmark opinion overturned its earlier ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson and declared segregated schools unconstitutional.

Documenting Brown 6: Brown v. Board of Education, 1955

The Supreme Court's opinion in Brown II reflects the struggle between federal and state governments on how and when school desegregation would occur.

Documenting Brown 7: Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped enforce the Brown ruling, a decade later.

Gideon v. Wainwright

Learn how the case of Gideon v. Wainwright brought about sweeping change in the American justice system in this video segment from The Supreme Court.

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Griswold v. Connecticut

The “right to privacy” as a legal issue is the topic of this video segment from The Supreme Court.

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Harry Briggs, Sr. and Eliza Briggs

In this transcript of an interview for Eyes on the Prize, Harry and Eliza Briggs describe their experience in the first school desegregation case, Briggs v. Elliott.

Brown Reactions: Black Educators

This 1954 statement, issued by a group of black educators, strongly endorses the Supreme Court's Brown ruling.

Brown Reactions: Editorials

This sampling of newspaper editorials from the mid-1950s reflects the range of public opinion and responses to the Brown decision.

Brown Reactions: Judge Brady

This 1954 statement from Tom Brady, a founder of the White Citizens' Council movement, expresses opposition to the Brown decision.

Brown Reactions: Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston's 1955 letter to the editor expresses her belief that the Brown decision would prove detrimental to the educational interests of black students.

Mendez v. Westminster: Desegregating California's Schools

Sylvia Mendez recalls the conditions that led Mexican Americans to sue for desegregation in the 1940s in this segment from Mendez vs. Westminster: Para Todos los Niños/For All the Children, from KOCE-TV.

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Implementing Brown

Point/counterpoint commentary on the president's actions after the Brown ruling; from American Experience: "Eisenhower."

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Kenneth Clark

In this transcript of an interview for Eyes on the Prize, psychologist Kenneth Clark describes his research that illustrated the impact of racism on African American children.