This week—May 17, to be specific—marked the 53rd anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. An article in the May 18, 1954, edition of The New York Times recounts Chief Justice Earl Warren reading the decision in the courtroom: “In the field of public education,” Warren said, “the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund offers a personal look at one of the figures behind Brown and the changes he has witnessed since the ruling. A Lifetime Measured in the Struggle for Equality relays reflections from Oliver Hill, a legal strategist who worked with Thurgood Marshall and others to end segregation. Hill turned 100 this month.