Cold Open

It’s the morning of November 14th, 1960, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Six-year-old Ruby Bridges sits on the back seat of a car as it drives from her home to a new school where Ruby is starting today. But the driver of the car isn’t Ruby’s mother or father. It’s a National Guardsman, one who’s been tasked with making sure Ruby gets to school safely.

Six years ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled that educating Black children like Ruby in separate schools from white children was unconstitutional. But Southern states have been slow to respond to the verdict. Today, Ruby is the first Black child to attend the previously all-white William Frantz Elementary, and as the car carrying her approaches the school entrance, Ruby can see a crowd has gathered at the gates.

A tomato strikes the windshield, startling Ruby as the car comes to a halt. But Ruby is more puzzled than concerned. Her parents have shielded her from the controversy that their choice of school has created, and Ruby has no idea that enrolling at William Frantz has caused such anger.

The car door opens, and Ruby steps out carrying a small satchel containing her lunch and a few pencils. She’s surrounded by four burly US Marshals who tower over her. Ruby hears the white crowd shouting degrading names and racial slurs. She squints as she slowly reads the words on one of the signs: “All I want for Christmas is a clean white school.” One woman even holds a miniature coffin with a black doll inside.

But Ruby doesn’t falter as the marshals escort her past the angry protesters. Instead, she walks straight up to the school’s entrance.

But as soon as Ruby steps inside, a flood of white mothers follows her into the school. The marshals pull Ruby to the side and surround her protectively, but the women ignore Ruby and instead, surge into the classrooms and seize their own children. As the angry parents leave with their kids trailing behind them, they shout that they’d rather keep their children at home than share a school with a Black child. After a few moments, the crowd disperses, the hall falls silent, and Ruby wonders whether every day at school will start like this one.

Although six-year-old Ruby Bridges was born after racial segregation in public schools was declared unconstitutional, many Southern states only integrated when the National Guard was called in to enforce the law. And over the next few months, Ruby will be escorted to school like this every day. She will have lessons with the sole teacher who agrees to teach a Black child, and she will only eat food she brings from home for fear of being poisoned. But Ruby won’t be deterred, and this little brave girl will play a crucial role in ending the segregation of America’s public schools, which was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court on May 17th, 1954.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is May 17th, 1954: The American Supreme Court Abolishes Segregation in Public Schools.

Act One: Separate But Equal 

It’s June 7th, 1892, at the Press Street Railroad Yard in New Orleans, Louisiana; 62 years before the Supreme Court orders public schools to integrate.

Homer Plessy, a thirty-year-old shoemaker, clutches a first-class ticket for the East Louisiana Railroad and approaches the platform. The 4:15 train to Covington is waiting and Homer nervously heads for the whites-only carriage. Although Homer has light skin and can easily pass as white, he’s not actually entitled to ride in the whites-only section. Homer has a Black grandmother, which means he’s legally classified as “colored.” And almost as soon as he boards the train, he feels the firm hand of the train conductor on his shoulder.

At the end of the Civil War almost thirty years ago, Black Americans were granted new legal rights and freedoms. In Louisiana, marriage between whites and Blacks was allowed, public schools were integrated, and Black men could vote if they paid a poll tax. But at the end of the 1870s, federal troops were withdrawn from the State and white Democrats won power in local elections. Louisiana’s progressive laws were then rolled back. The state legislature passed new laws restricting the rights of Black people. And among them was the 1890 Separate Car Act which allowed Louisiana railroads to designate separate carriages for white and Black passengers. But recently, Homer joined the Committee of Citizens, a group of eighteen activists that opposes Louisiana’s new segregationist policies. And today, Homer wants to be arrested and charged with breaking these restrictions. A plot to set up a legal test case.

The train conductor is also a member of the Committee of Citizens and knows all about the plan. So, as Homer hands over his ticket, the conductor asks whether Homer is white. Homer answers truthfully that he is not. And the conductor tells him that he must travel in the colored carriage, but Homer refuses to move, so the conductor summons a detective to arrest him.

This detective has also been planted by the Committee of Citizens to ensure that their plan goes off without a hitch. But unfortunately, as Homer is arrested, several white passengers decide to help the detective and drag Homer out of the whites-only carriage. The situation threatens to descend into violence, so, the detective hustle Homer away from the railroad yard before he gets hurt.

Then when he’s safely away from the station, Homer is charged with violating the Separate Car Act. And three months later, Homer answers the charge in front of Judge John Howard Ferguson. But Homer enters in an unusual plea. Rather than answering guilty or not guilty, Homer requests that the charge be dismissed because Louisiana’s Separate Car Act is unconstitutional. Homer claims that the racial segregation of train carriages violates the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, which abolish slavery and require equal treatment under law. According to Homer’s lawyers, forcing Black passengers into separate carriages implies that they are inferior and undermines their constitutional rights. But Judge Ferguson disagrees. He dismisses Homer’s petition and insists that he must go to trial.

Homer and his attorneys appeal Judge Ferguson’s ruling in the Louisiana Supreme Court. And when the judges there dismiss the petition too, Homer then appeals again to the United States Supreme Court.

Years pass though, before the nation’s highest court finally hears the Plessy v. Ferguson case. Homer’s lawyers rehash the same argument that’s already been rejected twice in the Louisiana. But hope they’ll received more sympathy in Washington, DC. Instead, it falls on deaf ears a third time. The eight white men of the US Supreme Court rule 7-1 against Homer Plessy, leaving him with no more legal options. As result Homer must pleads guilty to violating the Separate Car Act and is ordered to pay a $25 fine.

But the Plessy v. Ferguson case will have a much bigger impact than this mare fine. The Supreme Court judgment will set a powerful legal precedent, establishing a doctrine that will come to be known as “separate but equal.” As long as facilities are deemed to be the same, the Supreme Court rules that there is no legal impediment to segregation on the basis of race.

And Emboldened by this Supreme Court verdict, in the years that follow, Southern states will pass even stricter Jim Crow laws. Racial segregation will extend to almost all aspects of society, including jobs, housing, healthcare, and education. More than a half century will pass before the crusade against racial segregation returns to the Supreme Court—and when it does, a new lawyer will take up the case with a very different result.

Act Two: The Trial

It’s December 9th, 1952 at the Supreme Court in Washington DC, 56 years after the rejection of Homer Plessy’s case against racial segregation.

44-year-old civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall steps into the courtroom. Thurgood feels the eyes of everyone inside turn to him. Most of the people in the courtroom are white. But Thurgood is Black. He takes his horn-rimmed glasses out of his jacket pocket and puts them on. But he doesn’t really need them. Because Thurgood knows the brief he’s about to argue like the back of his hand.

Today’s case is Brown v. Board of Education, and Thurgood’s services have been employed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP are acting on behalf of Oliver Brown, a Black man from Topeka, Kansas, who wants to send his daughter to the school nearest the family home rather than the all-Black school much farther away. But the Topeka school board refused to enroll Oliver’s daughter because the nearby school was designated whites only. The Browns responded by contacting the NAACP and then filing a class action lawsuit with twelve other Black families. Thanks to Oliver’s name coming first in alphabetical order, it’s his name on the case file, and his lawyer Thurgood has a reputation for successfully litigating cases where Black Americans were paid unequal salaries or barred from attending college. Now, he’s set his sights on another totem of racial segregation: America’s public schools.

After Thurgood takes his place, the justices of the Supreme Court file into the courtroom. All of them are men, and all of them are white. But Thurgood knows from their previous rulings that four of them are likely to be sympathetic to his cause. The justices are also under pressure from the White House. As the USA seeks allies in the Cold War, the mistreatment of Black Americans is an easy propaganda win for the Soviet Union. So, many in the federal government hope the Supreme Court will take this opportunity to sweep away an embarrassing and unfair law.

But even then, Thurgood still has a difficult task ahead of him. He is trying to overturn a legal precedent set more than sixty years ago, when Plessy v. Ferguson judgment ruled that separate but equal racial segregation was legal.

When it’s time for Thurgood to speak, he rises and lays out his case. As Brown v. Board of Education progressed through the lower courts, the judges of Kansas denied the Brown family the chance to send their daughter to an all-white school because they ruled that the all-Black school was just as good. The state attorneys commissioned a study of the schools’ buildings, curricula, and teachers, and the study concluded that the two schools were broadly comparable. But Thurgood argues that the all-Black school is not equal of the all-white school—and he has the data to prove it.

Thurgood then calls in an expert witness. Dr. Kenneth Clark is a psychologist who has spent years studying the impact of segregation on children. Under questioning, Dr. Clark explains the results of a study he and his wife carried out using dolls. Children between the ages of three and seven were asked to choose their favorite toy from a selection of four dolls that differed only in skin and hair color. They were asked which doll was the nice one and which doll was the bad one. Dr. Clark found that both white and Black children tended to favor the white dolls which they attributed with positive traits, while the black dolls were associated with negative traits.

Thurgood concludes his questioning by asking Dr. Clark why the children favored the white doll. Dr. Clark’s hypothesis is that racial segregation and discrimination lower the self-esteem of Black children. And when Dr. Clark leaves the stand, Thurgood uses Dr. Clark’s research to assert that the racial discrimination legalized in Plessy v. Ferguson is inherently damaging to Black Americans. As such, it violates their constitutional right to equal treatment.

With this Thurgood finishes speaking, but his work is not over yet. The first hearing doesn’t lead to a verdict, and a year later, the justices recall Thurgood to Washington to rehash the arguments a second hearing. Thurgood does not see this as a good sign though, suspecting that the justices are stalling—and he heard rumors that Justice Stanley Reed is especially opposed to overturning segregation in public schools.

Still, Thurgood does his best, knowing it’s likely to be his last chance to influence the verdict. It will be several more months, though, before the court comes to a decision. And after years of careful planning and hard work, all Thurgood Marshall will be able to do is wait.

Act Three: The Verdict

It’s May 17th, 1954, at the Supreme Court in Washington DC, five months after the justices heard the Brown v. Board of Education case for a second time.

Thurgood Marshall stands nervously in the courtroom. After months of consideration, the verdict in is about to be delivered.

As Chief Justice Earl Warren clears his throat, Thurgood locks eyes with one of the other justices, Stanley Reed. Thurgood then glances away, but Justice Reed’s dark eyes continue to stare. Justice Reed is rumored to be the main holdout against ruling segregation to be unconstitutional, and Thurgood can’t tell whether Justice Reed is angry or pleased with the court’s verdict.

So, Thurgood focuses his attention on Justice Warren as the chief justice reads the decision. And it's only after a moment or two, that Thurgood's heart leaps. He’s won the case—and not only that, the decision is unanimous. The court has ruled by 9 votes to zero to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson. “Separate but equal” is no longer a constitutional doctrine.

Thurgood's eyes then return to Justice Reed, the man he expected to dissent. Without smiling, Justice Reed returns Thurgood's gaze with a small nod. Thurgood takes it as a gesture of respect for a well-argued case.

This victory is celebrated by civil rights activists across the United States. Many in the Deep South though, see the ruling as a tragedy and vow to fight it. Over the next few years, school districts across the South will resist the call to integrate schools, and Thurgood will be forced to take hundreds of districts to court before they open up their schools to all races. And even then, many Black children like Ruby Bridges will face protesters and threats of violence when they attend previously all-white schools.

And Brown v. Board of Education won’t be Thurgood Marshall’s last visit to the Supreme Court either. Thirteen years after this judgment, Thurgood will return to Washington—but in a new role. He will be appointed America’s first-ever Black Supreme Court Justice, and go on to serve on the nation’s highest court for 24 years, all the while remaining an advocate for equality, honoring the legacy of his hard-fought victory over racial segregation that came with the Brown v. Board of Education verdict on May 17th, 1954.

Outro

Next on History Daily. May 20th, 1916. With their ship crushed by punishing Antarctic conditions, explorer Ernest Shackleton and two others finally escape back to civilization.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Long.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.