Attorneys of Brown - May 3-30, 2011

The Attorneys of Brown v. Board of Education
May 3-30, 2011

Exhibit

Brown v. Board of Education remains one of the most transformative U.S. Supreme Court decisions in history. In the case, a group of dedicated and creative black and white lawyers representing African American parents and their children in four states and the District of Columbia chose not only to attack the obvious target—the rampant inequality of schools attended by black and white children in many parts of the country—but to put together a frontal assault on segregation itself. While the Brown decision did not immediately end segregation in the nation’s public schools, the ruling constituted a powerful symbol of the law as an avenue for social change. Brown v. Board of Education inspired and provided a model for generations of future lawyers in the civil rights movement. This new exhibit will present the story of the trial attorneys who fought the Brown case and who, in the process, ultimately reshaped a nation.

Photo courtesy of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Presented by the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site as part of the 2010-2011 program series, Commemorating Our Nation's Struggle for Freedom: From Civil War to Civil Rights.