People, Locations, Episodes

Brown v. B.O.E. is Decided

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was ruled on this date in 1954.

Bolling v. Sharpe is Decided

*On this date in 1954, Bolling v. Sharpe was decided. This was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the Constitution prohibits segregated public schools in the District of Columbia. Argued initially on December 10–11, 1952, a year before Brown v. Board of Education, Bolling was reargued on December 8–9, 1953, and was unanimously decided on May […]

Derwin Brown, Police Captain born

*Derwin Brown was born on this date in 1954. He was a Black police captain and the Sheriff-elect of DeKalb County, Georgia. The firstborn of Burvena and George Robert Brown was raised in Long Island, New York, where he attended Woodfield Road School and Malverne Jr. High School for his elementary years and Malverne High […]

Theodore Shaw, Lawyer, and Educator born

*Theodore Shaw was born on this date in 1954.  He is a Black lawyer, activist, and educator.  Theodore Michael Shaw is the son of Theodore and Jean Audrey Churchill Shaw. He was born on Governors Island and raised in Harlem and the Bronx, NY. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1976 and his […]

South Africa’s Freedom Charter is Issued

*On this date in 1955, the Freedom Charter was the statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies: the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats, and the Coloured People’s Congress. Its opening mandate characterizes it, “The People Shall Govern!”  The […]

Lezli Baskerville, Lawyer, and Education Advocate born.

*Lezli Baskerville was born on this date in 1956. She is a Black lawyer, judge, and education advocate. Baskerville was born in Montclair, New Jersey, to Marjorie Baskerville and Charles W. Baskerville. Her mother was a teacher and social worker, and her father was a marketing executive. She has an identical twin, Dr. Renee E. […]

Browder v. Gayle is Filed

*On this date in 1956, Fred Gray filed the case of Browder v. Gayle in U.S. District Court. (Browder was a Montgomery housewife; Gayle the mayor of Montgomery).

The South Africa Treason Trial Begins

*On this date in 1956, the South Africa Treason trial began. This Treason Trial was a prosecution in Johannesburg in which 156 primarily Black citizens were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa. On December 5 of that year, the South African Police’s Security Branch raided and arrested 140 people from […]

Simkins v. City of Greensboro is Decided

*On this date in 1957, Simkins v. City of Greensboro was decided.  This case required the City of Greensboro, North Carolina, to cease discriminating based on race at its Gillespie Park Golf Club, despite leasing the club to a private organization. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision.  In December 1955, six Black men […]

Dorsey v. State Athletic Commission is Decided

*On this date in 1958, Dorsey v. State Athletic Commission was decided. The Louisiana decision stated that Joseph Dorsey, Jr., is a Negro prizefighter. He brings this suit on his behalf and behalf of all other Negro professional prizefighters similarly situated. He asks for a declaratory judgment and an injunction to restrain the Louisiana State […]

Loretta Lynch, Lawyer, and Prosecutor born

*Loretta Lynch was born on this date in 1959. She is an African American lawyer and prosecutor.

The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is Signed

On this date in 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

This was the first civil rights bill to be approved by Congress since Reconstruction. Though Eisenhower is not routinely linked to the civil rights issue, his contribution, including the 1957 Act, was important as it pushed the whole civil rights issue into the White House. At the time, politicians from the South were angry over what they saw as federal interference in state affairs. This bill became an act where as both parties were fighting for the “Black Vote.”

Boynton v. Virginia is Ruled

*On this date, 1960, the United States Supreme Court decided Boynton v. Virginia. The case overturned a judgment convicting Bruce Boynton, a Black law student, of trespassing by being in a restaurant in a bus terminal that was “whites only.” It held that racial segregation in public transportation was illegal because such segregation violated the Interstate Commerce Act, which broadly forbade discrimination in interstate […]

Holmes v. Danner is Ruled

*On this date in 1961, Holmes v. Danner was decided.  This civil rights case was won to permit the desegregation of the University of Georgia.  Hamilton Holmes, a minor, by his father and next friend, Alfred Holmes, and Charlayne A. Hunter, a minor by her mother and next friend, Mrs. Althea Brown Hunter, on behalf […]

Braden v. United States is decided

*Braden v. United States, 365 U.S. 431, was decided on this date in 1961. In this case, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the petitioner, Carl Braden, ‘s conviction, based on his refusal to answer questions posed by the House of Representatives, did not violate his First Amendment rights and was therefore […]