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Civil Rights Movement
Legal Battles
Legal Battles

Legal Battles

Investigate the court cases and legislation that advanced the fight for racial equality by challenging segregation and discrimination in education, housing, voting, and public accommodations. Famous cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, like Brown v. Board of Education, overruled traditional legal arguments for segregation, while legislation like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act outlawed specific forms of discrimination.

  • Judgment in Plessy v. Ferguson, the case that established “separate but equal,” 1896

    Supreme Court of the United States. 2/2/1790

    During the era of Reconstruction, black Americans' political rights were affirmed by three constitutional amendments and numerous laws passed by Congress. Racial discrimination was attacked on a parti…

    View Full Item  in National Archives at Washington, DC - Textual Reference
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 banning discrimination in the government and armed forces, 1941

    Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. Domestic Operations Branch. Bureau of Special Services. 3/9/1943-9/15/1945

    View Full Item  in National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures
  • Charts recording the votes of United States Supreme Court justices in civil rights cases, 1946-1947

    Two charts discussing civil rights court cases; taken from an article by John P. Frank, titled "The United States Supreme Court," from a 1947 issue of "University of Chicago Law Review."

    View Full Item  in Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
  • Draft of W.E.B. Du Bois’s speech to the National Lawyers Guild on the United States before and after the 14th Amendment, 1947

    Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963

    Typed draft of speech for the National Lawyers Guild on the historical atmosphere in the United States before and after the 14th Amendment was adopted.

    View Full Item  in Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
  • 1948 document outlining legal strategy to further civil rights from the papers of W. E. B. Du Bois

    Concerning the necessity of laws to provide for equal rights for all, despite race, color, creed, national origin, or political beliefs.

    View Full Item  in Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
  • Executive Order 9981 in which President Harry S. Truman bans the segregation of the Armed Forces, July 26, 1948

    National Archives and Records Administration. Office of the Federal Register. 4/1/1985

    View Full Item  in National Archives at Washington, DC - Textual Reference
  • Photograph of Heman Marion Sweatt registering at the University of Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in Sweatt v. Painter, 1950

    Douglass, Neal

    Photograph of Heman Sweatt standing in line amongst several Caucasian men at the Registration Office at the University of Texas at Austin. 1 photograph : negative, b&w ; 5 x 4 in.

    View Full Item  in Austin History Center, Austin Public Library
  • Document on civil rights legislation describing the history and effects of Senate Rule 22, the cloture rule, 1952

    Progressive Party (U.S. : 1948)

    Describing the background, history, and effects of Senate Rule 22, and outlining "the way out," to essentially "organize delegations to all Senators at once, before the new Senate convenes."

    View Full Item  in Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
  • Motion filed on behalf of James Meredith in his suit against the University of Mississippi, 1961

    Marshall, Burke, 1922-2003

    This item is a copy of a motion filed on behalf of James Meredith against the University of Mississippi.

    View Full Item  in John F. Kennedy Library
  • Photograph of Senator Warren G. Magnuson speaking with Robert F. Kennedy at Commerce Committee hearings on the Civil Rights Act, 1963

    Printed on verso: Discuss Civil Rights Legislation -- U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy (right) discusses provisions of the proposed Civil Rights Act of 1963 with Senator Warren Magnuson, chairman…

    View Full Image  in University of Washington
  • Memorandum from Robert F. Kennedy to President Kennedy on the status of the Civil Rights bill in Congress, 1963

    President (1961-1963 : Kennedy). Office of the Personal Secretary. 1961-1963

    This item is a memorandum from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to President John F. Kennedy regarding proposed civil rights legislation. The memo contains handwritten notations by the President and…

    View Full Item  in John F. Kennedy Library
  • Text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

    United States. Congress (88th, 2nd session : 1964), Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.)

    View Full Item  in Northeastern University Library
  • Documents from the lawsuit filed against Neshoba County, Mississippi officials about the death of civil rights workers Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman in 1964

    Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality

    The legal case brought by COFO, relatives of two murdered civil rights workers, and others against the sheriff and deputy sheriff of Neshoba County, Mississippi--where the men were killed--and other M…

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Proceedings from lower court hearing on Ollie McClung’s restaurant discrimination case, which became Katzenback v. McClung in the U.S. Supreme Court, 1964

    U.S. District Court for the Southern (Birmingham) Division of the Northern District of Alabama. 1/1/1885?

    This document consists of the proceedings from the case, which was heard by a three judge panel: Judges Walter P. Gewin (5th Circuit Court of Appeals), Seybourn H. Lynne and H. Hobart Grooms (Northern…

    View Full Item  in National Archives at Atlanta
  • Opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Miranda v. Arizona written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, 1966

    Supreme Court of the United States. 2/2/1790

    View Full Item  in National Archives at Washington, DC - Textual Reference
  • U.S. Supreme Court document about Loving v. Virginia (1967), in which the court invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage

    Supreme Court of the United States. 2/2/1790

    View Full Item  in National Archives at Washington, DC - Textual Reference
  • Fair housing 1968: an interpretation of Title VIII (Fair Housing) of the Civil Rights Act of 1968

    July 1968.

    View Full Item  in University of California
  • Statement of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on civil rights enforcement in education, 1983

    United States Commission on Civil Rights

    "June 1983." Title from cover.

    View Full Item  in University of Michigan
  • Oral history transcript of an interview with Cecil Poole about civil rights, law, and the federal courts

    Poole, Cecil F., 1914-1997, Interviewee

    Childhood and education; military service; private law practice in San Francisco; Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Northern District, California, 1951-58; Legal Secretary to California Governor Edmun…

    View Full Item  in UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
  • Interview with Judge William Steele Sessions about legal struggles during the civil rights movement

    Cobbs, Rebecca

    Oral history interview with Judge William Steele Sessions by St. Andrew's Episcopal School student Rebecca Cobbs. In this interview, the Honorable Sessions shows how the legal system enhanced the Civi…

    View Full Item  in St. Andrew's Episcopal School
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Civil Rights Movement
Legal Battles

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