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The NAACP's Legal Strategy against Segregated Education, 1925-1950, With a New Epilogue by the Author

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Probably the most important US Supreme Court decision of the 20th Century was the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education, which famously overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine and declared segregation in public education to violate the Equal Protection Clause (of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment). Important as Brown itself was, however, in truth the Brown decision represented the culmination of a remarkable litigation campaign waged over decades by Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston, and the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund. Professor Tushnet's classic study of this campaign collects and imparts a detailed history of this campaign in the years leading up to, and eventually bringing about, Brown. As much as Tushnet carefully examines the key problems Jim Crow legal doctrine posed for the lawyers, it is Tushnet's exploration into how the NAACP overcame the difficult organizational, financial, political, and human resources challenges of the endeavor that makes this truly the story of a great campaign, one chock full of timeless lessons for social justice lawyers and activists of every stripe.