In the Bible, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are said to usher in the end of the world. That is why, in 1964, Judge Ben Cameron gave four of his fellow judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit the derisive nickname "the Fifth Circuit Four"--because they were ending the segregationist world of the Deep…

This article provides a history of Black southern teacher associations and the civil rights agenda they articulated from Reconstruction through the desegregation of public schools in the 1970s. Black teacher associations demonstrated historic agency by demanding a fundamental right to an education, equal salaries, and the right to work during the…

Good research does not mean good policy, but policy or legal conclusions that rely on false assumptions are certain to be bad. When the rights of U.S. students of color are at stake, the Supreme Courts need the best research findings the country can offer. The U.S. Constitution contains sweeping and undefined terms. Reaching a conclusion about the…

This article examines the historical relationship between political power and the pursuit of education and social equality from the Reconstruction era to the present. The chief argument is that education equality is historically linked to and even predicated on equal political power, specifically, equal access to the franchise and instruments of…

With the rise of the Cold War, federal officials in the United States sought to end the racial segregation that the U.S. Supreme Court had accepted in the 1896 decision of "Plessy v. Ferguson." Although the reforms began with changes in the armed services, they moved to reduce racial segregation in schools. Many forces brought about the…

In this classroom simulation, students travel back in time to 1945, when racism was institutionalized in many states through segregation. Though students cannot literally travel back to the Jim Crow era, teachers can create a situation that brings home the point of injustice and the choices individuals are faced with in such situations. Suddenly,…

Analyzes four significant court cases that span the rise of a body of jurisprudence in the United States known as civil rights law. Describes each of these cases in detail showing the profound impact they have had on the rights of all citizens and, in particular, African Americans. (CMK)

In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in the nation's public schools. This decision has not eliminated racial segregation, but it fundamentally altered the psychological pattern of race relations in the United States. Brown concerned a form of racial discrimination that has virtually vanished from…

On May 17, 2004, the United States will observe the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. By invalidating the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the field of public education, a doctrine that had been approved by the same court nearly sixty years earlier in Plessy…

On May 17, 2004, our nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of a landmark decision, Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This U.S. Supreme Court decision was an impressive unanimous vote. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of "Plessy v Ferguson" that the Court had…

Discusses the resistance of both Blacks and Whites to the federally mandated integration of the Louisiana State University system and an end to its "separate but equal" policies. Emphasizes the role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). (FMW)