The NAACP's Legal Strategy Against Segregated Education

by Tushnet, Mark V.

• ISBN13: 9780807855959
• ISBN10: 0807855952
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

The NAACP's fight against segregated education--the first public interest litigation campaign--culminated in the 1954 Browndecision. While touching on the general social, political, and economic climate in which the NAACP acted, Mark V. Tushnet emphasizes the internal workings of the organization as revealed in its own documents. He argues that the dedication and political and legal skills of staff members such as Walter White, Charles Hamilton Houston, and Thurgood Marshall were responsible for the ultimate success of public interest law. This edition contains a new epilogue by the author that addresses general questions of litigation strategy, the contested question of whether the Browndecision mattered, and the legacy of Brownthrough the Burger and Rehnquist courts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
Setting the Course: The Grant from the Garland Fund	1	(20)
The Legal Background: From Margold to Houston	21	(13)
The Influence of the Staff	34	(15)
Thurgood Marshall and the Maryland Connection	49	(21)
Securing the Precedents: Gaines and Alston	70	(12)
The Campaign in the 1940s: Contingencies, Adaptations, and the Problem of Staff	82	(23)
The Strategy of Delay and the Direct Attack on Segregation	105	(33)
Conclusion: Some Lessons from the Campaign	138	(29)
Epilogue	167	(20)
Notes	187	(38)
Bibliography	225	(12)
Index	237