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NAACP Legal Strategy

NAACP Legal Strategy. Charles Hamilton Houston Creator of strategy. 1 st Strategy. Show that there is no equality Begin in Graduate Schools Why? Inequality is most apparent (there are FEW black graduate schools) Least threatening to the population as a whole. Thurgood Marshall.

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NAACP Legal Strategy

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  1. NAACP Legal Strategy • Charles Hamilton Houston • Creator of strategy

  2. 1st Strategy • Show that there is no equality • Begin in Graduate Schools • Why? • Inequality is most apparent (there are FEW black graduate schools) • Least threatening to the population as a whole

  3. Thurgood Marshall • Howard University Law School • Trained by Charles Houston • Desire to apply the tenets of the Constitituion to all citizens. • 1st Black Supreme Court Justice.

  4. Murray v. Maryland School of Law (1936) • Murray denied admission to U of Md. Law • Houston and Marshall argue that there are no black law schools in the state • To compensate, Md. offers scholarship to an out of state law school • Lower court orders Md. Law to allow Murray in-upheld after Md. appeals.

  5. Lloyd Gaines seeking admission to the all white law school at U of Mo. Univ. offers to build school on campus of all-black Lincoln U. (no funds, no plans, Univ. would pay tuition to out of state law school if he didn’t want to wait.) Supreme Court Rules for Gaines States had an obligation to provide an equal education. Could not send black students out of state, could not ask black students to wait while black schools built. Only applies to law schools Gaines v. Missouri (1938)

  6. Sweatt v. Painter (1946) (U. of Texas Law) • Herman Sweatt tried to register for Law School at U. of Texas • offered three basement rooms downtown, off campus, taught by part-time faculty • 2000 white students from the University rallied in support of Sweatt • Lower court rules against Sweatt • Appeal process goes all the way to Supreme Court

  7. McLaurin v. Oklahoma St. Board of Regents (1949) • Marshall said that eight people had applied to a doctoral program in education, they chose, McClaurin a 68 year old black professor-why? • Forced to sit at roped off desk with sign saying “reserved for colored” • Made to eat at separate table in café, restricted table in library

  8. Supreme Court Ruling onSweatt and McLaurin (1950) • Similar arguments, Court hears both together • Amicus curiae=(Friend of the court “brief”) filed in favor of Universities by southern states, amicus curiae filed in favor of plaintiffs by justice department • (President Truman shifts US Gov’t policy on southern segregation) • Supreme Ct. says equality must be genuine (only applied to grad schools, doesn’t overturn Plessy)

  9. NAACP’s New Two Part Strategy • First: Separate but Equal is Unconstitutional • Second: Even if Separate but Equal is Constitutional, schools could never be truly equal-the consequences of segregation (intellectual, economic, social/psychological) made equality impossible

  10. Bolling v. Sharpe (1950) • Gardner Bishop, Black barber with 14 yr. old daughter, Judine • Group of parents in Washington, D.C. launched a strike keeping kids home from Browne Jr. High. • Built to accommodate 800 students, it was filled with 1800, students had to attend in two shifts. • Nearby white school had hundreds of empty seats.

  11. Briggs v. S.C. Clarendon County (1952) • 1st time attacking segregation in elementary schools • 3 times as many blacks as whites • White students received more than 60% of educational funding • Per capita spending for white students was $179/yr and for black students $43/yr • New kind of evidence-Kenneth Clark’s Dolls Test-Black Girl Preferred White Doll • (See Video) –What KEY Important point is made from this Psych research?

  12. Davis v. County Schools of Prince Edward County Md.(1951) • Moton High School held twice as many students as it was designed for, no cafeteria, no gym • County’s only concession to complaints was to erect tar-paper and wooden shacks for overflow of students • Highest paid teacher at Moton earned less than lowest paid white teacher in the county • Barbara Rose Johns, a Moton High School JUNIOR plotted a rebellion • Phone principal, forge signature about assembly, convince teachers to leave, plan a strike • Principal urged them not to strike but didn’t order them back to class • Students decided to strike, on 3rd day, NAACP is there and takes the case.

  13. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Ks.(1954) • 7 yr old Linda Brown had to cross railroad tracks in a switching yard and wait for a rickety bus to take her to a black school on the other side of town. • A white school was much closer to her home.

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