Many people were elated when Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka in May 1954, the ruling that struck down state-sponsored racila segregation in America's public schools. Thurgood Marshall, chief attorney for the black families that launched the litigation, exclaimed later, "I was so happy, I was numb." The novelist Ralph Ellison wrote, "Another battle of the Civil War has been won. The rest is up to us and I'm very glad. What a wonderful world of possibilities are unfolded for the children!" Here, in a concise, narrative, Bancroft Prize-winning historian James T. Patterson takes readers through the dramatic case and its 50-year aftermath. A wide range of characters animates the story, from the little-known African-Americans who dared to challenge Jim Crow with lawsuits (at great personal cost); to Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Justice himself; to Earl Warren, who shephered a fractured Court to a unanimous decision.
- ISBN10 0195127161
- ISBN13 9780195127164
- Publish Date 1 March 2001
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 18 July 2008
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 318
- Language English