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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Decision in the Streets

This video segment, adapted from Decision in the Streets by civil rights filmmaker Harvey Richards, portrays the interracial protests that took place in San Francisco in 1963-64.

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Desegregation in San Francisco

This audio excerpt from National Public Radio's All Things Considered examines policies designed to achieve racial diversity in San Francisco's schools and their impact on Chinese Americans.

Desegregation Mandate: Jefferson County, AL

A 1967 federal court order resulted in this document, which mandated school desegregation in Birmingham.

Diane Nash and the Sit-Ins

Diane Nash was a college student when she started leading sit-in demonstrations to protest discrimination. In this interview, recorded for Eyes on the Prize, Nash describes her role in the Civil Rights movement.

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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.

Documenting Brown: Collected Excerpts

This collection of excerpts from legislation and court decisions documents key phases of the legal struggle to gain and implement equal education.

Domestic Terror: Understanding Lynching During the Jim Crow Era

This lesson exposes the crime of lynching and explores the many political, legal and social attempts made by individuals and organizations to seek justice.

Eileen Kelley Walbert

Eileen Walbert was among the Concerned White Citizens of Alabama who took a stand for civil rights, as she describes in this oral history from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

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Eleventh Commandment Flyer

This flyer from the 1962 Birmingham selective buying campaign encourages African Americans to boycott discriminatory businesses; from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Excerpts from the March on Washington, Part 1

This audio compilation, recorded live at the 1963 March on Washington, captures the voices of several civil rights leaders.

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Excerpts from the March on Washington, Part 2

This audio compilation, recorded live at the 1963 March on Washington, pays tribute to the women -- both leaders and widows of slain leaders -- of the Civil Rights movement.

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Excerpts from the March on Washington, Part 3

Recorded live at the 1963 March on Washington, this audio segment captures the voice of SNCC leader John Lewis.

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