Images depicting these events may contain subject matter or terminology that does not reflect currently accepted language. The Hechinger Report has edited the original caption for clarity and style.
1954: The Supreme Court ruled that state-sanctioned public school segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This decision was made in 1896 in Plessy v. It would overturn the court's decision in Ferguson, which ruled that “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow02.jpg?resize=780%2C859&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow03.jpg?resize=775%2C1024&ssl=1)
Brown v. The Board of Education consolidates lawsuits filed in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kansas, South Carolina, and Virginia in response to school segregation. Credit: National Archives Foundation
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow05.jpg?resize=780%2C628&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow04.jpg?resize=780%2C625&ssl=1)
The auditorium of Morton High School, a school attended by black students (left), and the auditorium of Farmville High School, a school attended by white students (right). These images were submitted as evidence by plaintiffs Dorothy E. Davis and others. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Brown v. One of the cases consolidated with the Board of Education. Credit: National Archives Foundation
1955: A year after the Supreme Court's Brown I decision found that segregated schools were inherently unequal, little has changed. In Brown II, the court considered how the decision should be implemented. It set no deadline for schools to desegregate and required them to do so “at a deliberate pace.”
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow06.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1)
Students chat while waiting for history class to begin at Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, September 20, 1955. Community work. Source: Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images
1956: The University of Alabama admits its first black student, Autherine Lucy. She faced violence from white supremacist groups and widespread protests from white students.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow07-scaled-e1715634115695-1024x762.jpg?resize=780%2C580&ssl=1)
Students at the University of Alabama recently protested on the Tuscaloosa campus following the admission of its first black student, Autherine Lucy. This demonstration attracted hundreds of participants. Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow08.jpg?resize=780%2C634&ssl=1)
Autherine Lucy (center), the first black student admitted to the University of Alabama, talks about returning to campus after riots in Birmingham, Alabama, on February 7, 1956. Source: Gene Herrick/Associated Press
1957: Federal and state governments clash over the admission of nine black students to Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow09.jpg?resize=780%2C646&ssl=1)
Arkansas National Guardsmen Carl Cobb (left) and DD Evans (right) stand guard at one of the entrances to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. September 3, 1957. Source: Associated Press
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow10.jpg?resize=780%2C780&ssl=1)
Elizabeth Eckford, center, ignores the hostile screams and stares from her fellow students on the first day of school, September 6, 1957. She was one of nine black students ordered to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. by a federal court following legal action by the NAACP. Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images
1958: Thousands of young people participated in the Youth March for Integrated Schools in Washington, DC.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow13.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1)
As part of an NAACP rally calling for school integration in Washington, D.C., more than 15,000 people, both white and black, marched down Madison Drive to the Washington Monument. Credit: Getty Images
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow11.jpg?resize=780%2C518&ssl=1)
Crowds protest integration of Central High School outside the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas, August 20, 1959. Source: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
1960: First grade Ruby Bridges, Gail St. Etienne, Leona Tate, and Tessie Prevost integrate schools in New Orleans.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow24.jpg?resize=780%2C519&ssl=1)
A deputy U.S. marshal escorts Ruby Bridges, 6, from William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans on November 14, 1960. He was the only black student enrolled at the school his first year. Parents of white students refused court-ordered integration and kicked their children out of school. Credit: Associated Press
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow14.jpg?resize=780%2C787&ssl=1)
Lee Hooks and other white housewives protest against desegregation plans at William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, December 2, 1960. Source: Bettmann via Getty Images
1961-1963: Attempts to integrate southern universities under federal mandate were met with riots and violence.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow28.jpg?resize=780%2C522&ssl=1)
Black students Charlayne Hunter (center) and Hamilton Holmes (right) after being suspended from the University of Georgia. Credit: Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow16.jpg?resize=780%2C524&ssl=1)
Rioters stand outside the University of Georgia on the day Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes integrated the university. Hunter was evacuated from her Myers Hall dormitory to Atlanta on January 11, 1961, after police used tear gas to disperse rioting students. Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow17.jpg?resize=780%2C515&ssl=1)
Governor George Wallace is trying to block the integration of the University of Alabama. He will face U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach. Credit: Buyenlarge/Getty Images
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow18.jpg?resize=780%2C506&ssl=1)
Two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, enroll at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on June 12, 1963, after a federal court barred the state from interfering with enrollment. Despite these orders, Governor George Wallace appointed himself temporary university registrar and stood in the doorway of the administration building, preventing students from registering. In response, President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard. About 100 security guards escorted the students to campus. General Henry Graham, commander of the Guard, ordered Wallace to “stand down.” Credit: OFF/AFP via Getty Images
1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. The law, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, includes provisions prohibiting segregation and denying federal funding to schools and education programs that discriminate.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow19.jpg?resize=780%2C787&ssl=1)
President Lyndon B. Johnson shakes hands with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the signing of the Civil Rights Act as officials look on in Washington, DC. Credit: Photo Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow20.jpg?resize=780%2C530&ssl=1)
Opponents of integration hold signs reading “Kill the Bill” and “Vote for Wallace” in support of Alabama Governor George Wallace in 1964. Wallace advocated segregation and strongly opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed racial discrimination. Credit: FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images
1971: Swann v. In the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board case, the Supreme Court approved busing, magnet schools, and compensatory education as acceptable tools for accelerating the integration process.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow23.jpg?resize=780%2C532&ssl=1)
September 16, 1974 Police escort school buses from Gavin School in South Boston on the third day of court-ordered busing to integrate Boston's public schools. Credit: Associated Press
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow27.jpg?resize=780%2C461&ssl=1)
Chinatown residents protested against integration of local schools at a San Francisco Board of Education meeting on busing on June 12, 1974. Source: Vince Maggiora/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
1978: The Supreme Court ruled in Regents of the University of California v. The Bakke case ruled in favor of Allan Bakke, a white student who claimed he had been discriminated against.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow25.jpg?resize=780%2C516&ssl=1)
After Allan Bakke entered the University of California, Davis School of Medicine on September 25, 1978, he pursued a career as a news and television reporter. Bakke sued the university for reverse discrimination after his applications were rejected in 1973 and 1974. The Supreme Court ordered the university to admit Bakke, finding that the school had unlawfully discriminated against him because he was white. Source: Associated Press/Walt Zeboski
2003: The Supreme Court ruled in Grutter v. The Bollinger decision ruled in favor of affirmative action in college admissions..
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow26.jpg?resize=780%2C581&ssl=1)
Candice Phoenix (18, left) and Aaron Nelson (20), both from Washington, D.C., who support affirmative action, support Grutter v., which allows affirmative action in college admissions. A rally is being held in front of the Supreme Court after the Bollinger decision. June 23, 2003. Source: Associated Press/Charles Dharapak
2023: The Supreme Court rules that considering race in college admissions is unconstitutional, ruling in two cases simultaneously: Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellow of Harvard University.
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow21.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1)
Members of the Asian American Education Coalition rally outside the Washington, D.C. Supreme Court on June 29, 2023. In a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that race-sensitive admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional. Establishes a new precedent that could end affirmative action in college admissions for schools that receive federal funding. Source: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
![](https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brown-slideshow22.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1)
Kashish Bastola, a rising Harvard sophomore, hugs fellow Harvard student Nahla Owens outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., June 29, 2023. Credit: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
This story about school desegregation was produced by: Hechinger Reportis a nonprofit, independent media outlet focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up Hechinger Newsletter.