Timeline

Charles Hamilton Houston (1895-1950) trains Howard University School of Law students to challenge the legal barriers of segregation, later leading to the founding of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). One of his mentees is Thurgood Marshall. Houston leaves Howard in 1935 to serve as the NAACP’s first General Counsel, playing a pivotal role in nearly every U.S. Supreme Court case in the two decades before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954.

The Maryland Court of Appeals affirms the lower court ruling that the University of Maryland School of Law’s exclusion of Black applicants violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and it orders the school to immediately integrate its student population and admit a Black applicant. The case is the first by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to test the “separate but equal” doctrine. 

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that denying a Black applicant admission to the University of Missouri School of Law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

LDF is founded as the legal arm of the NAACP on March 20 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993). He serves as its first Director-Counsel until 1961. 

The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the capital convictions of four Black men accused of murdering an elderly white man because the confessions used to convict them were coerced by the state, in violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s right to due process.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit holds that paying Black teachers less than their white counterparts violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and it orders equal pay for Black and white public school teachers. 

In the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, a Black teacher challenges the 15% pay disparity between herself and her white colleagues as a violation of the Kentucky Constitution, state statutes, and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The settlement in the case leads to the removal of the pay discrepancy between Black and white teachers in Louisville, Kentucky, public schools.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that the exclusion of Black voters from the Democratic primary in Texas violates the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

Constance Baker Motley is hired as a law clerk at LDF and is promoted to Assistant Special Counsel in 1949. She is LDF’s first Black female attorney—working on all LDF’s major school desegregation cases through 1964—and the first Black woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. Motley would later become the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge. 

Learn more about Constance Baker Motley.

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Virginia law requiring segregated seating on interstate buses as unconstitutional under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court reverses a murder conviction and capital sentence obtained through a jury selection process that for decades systematically excluded Black citizens from serving on criminal juries. The Court holds that a jury selection process that discriminates against Black jurors violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court orders the admission of qualified Black students to previously all-white state law schools in compliance with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits courts from enforcing racially restrictive covenants.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that, consistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a Black student admitted to a formerly all-white graduate school cannot be subjected to segregation practices that interfere with meaningful classroom instruction and interaction with other students. 

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that establishing a separate and inferior law school for Black students to justify their exclusion from the all-white University of Texas Law School violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits an individual from being sued for damages for breaking a racially restrictive covenant and selling to a non-white person. 

In this landmark case, which consolidated five related cases including Brown, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strikes down segregation in public schools, ending the “separate but equal” doctrine set in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. 

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously finds that racial segregation in the public schools of Washington, D.C., denies Black students due process of law as protected by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This is one of the five cases consolidated under Brown v. Board of Education.

The U.S. Supreme Court orders all public schools in the United States to desegregate with “all deliberate speed” and eliminate any obstacles that would hinder immediate integration. 

The U.S. Supreme Court affirms a federal District Court’s decision barring the University of Alabama from denying applicants admission based on race. 

Martin Luther King Jr. is convicted in Alabama state court for violating an anti-boycotting law through his leadership of the Montgomery bus boycotts, marking a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement.  

The U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirms a District Court decision declaring that segregation on city buses violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the death sentence of William Earl Fikes, a Black man, ruling that Alabama’s procedural failures and week-long isolation of Fikes violated his due process rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

President Dwight Eisenhower orders the National Guard to escort nine Black students to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that the governor and state legislature of Arkansas cannot prevent Black students from integrating the Little Rock School District. The Court reaffirms the U.S. Constitution as the “supreme law of the land” under Article VI, meaning the Court’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment in Brown v. Board of Education is the supreme law of the land and schools must desegregate. 

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously finds that the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the free association rights of the NAACP and its rank-and-file members. 

Prince Edward County, Virginia, closes all public schools rather than desegregate them.  

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Interstate Commerce Act prohibits racial discrimination in bus terminal restaurants. 

Jack Greenberg (1924-2016) succeeds Thurgood Marshall as LDF’s second Director-Counsel. He serves until 1984. 

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia finds that the University of Georgia discriminated against qualified Black students, Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne A. Hunter, in violation of their equal protection and due process rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and orders the school to desegregate and grant their admission.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black issues an in-chambers opinion vacating the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s order that would have prevented a Black student, civil rights activist James Meredith, from enrolling at the University of Mississippi, in violation of his equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In issuing this opinion, the Court mandates the integration of the University of Mississippi. 

The U.S. Supreme Court declares that the City of Memphis’ delay in desegregating public parks and recreational facilities violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

In a landmark ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit states that private hospitals that receive federal funds cannot discriminate based on race against physicians and their patients under the Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. This marks the first time that federal courts apply the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to prohibit racial discrimination by a private entity. 

Marian Wright Edelman, the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi bar, organizes LDF’s office in Jackson, Mississippi, where she handles more than 120 cases generated during the Freedom Summer.

A three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia finds that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires a restaurant owned by Lester Maddox, the future governor of Georgia, to serve Black customers.

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strikes down Florida’s anti-miscegenation statute that criminalizes interracial cohabitation. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination in places of public accommodation, vacating the convictions of South Carolina and Arkansas demonstrators who participated in lunch counter sit-ins. 

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama affirms the rights of protesters under the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and allows Martin Luther King Jr. to lead thousands in a five-day voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, after prior attempts resulted in the “Bloody Sunday” police riot on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. LDF attorneys help draw up a safe and secure route for the marchers. 

James Nabrit III and other LDF attorneys work with civil rights leaders to draw up a march route from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery and support the voting rights march. 

The U.S. Supreme Court uses the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to reverse the state convictions of Deep South Freedom Riders, including Ralph D. Abernathy, who had been testing the efficacy of prior federal court rulings prohibiting segregation in transportation facilities that were issued well before the Civil Rights Act was passed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit holds that, under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a federally funded hospital cannot deny staff privileges to Black physicians. 

LDF establishes the National Office for the Rights of the Indigent (NORI) on March 16 to litigate on behalf of poor people. NORI provides research and test-case support to private and legal aid lawyers. Jack Greenberg and Michael Meltsner are co-directors.

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a contempt order against civil rights protesters, including Martin Luther King Jr., for marching in Birmingham, Alabama, without a permit. The Court declines to consider the protesters’ claims that a Birmingham ordinance infringed on their rights under the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

Thurgood Marshall is nominated and confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Black justice on the high court. He retires in 1991. 

In the first labor case tried under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia prohibits an employer’s practice of relying solely on departmental rather than plant-wide seniority, which forced longtime Black workers to give up their seniority when they transferred to better jobs in previously white-only departments. 

In a case banning discrimination against Black customers at a South Carolina restaurant chain, the U.S. Supreme Court recognizes that civil rights plaintiffs act as “private attorney[s] general” and are entitled to attorneys’ fees when they prevail under Title II of the Civil Rights Act. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that a “freedom of choice” school plan that sustains racial segregation in public schools cannot satisfy the mandate of Brown v. Board of Education.  

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit holds that an anti-picketing ordinance in Port Allen, Louisiana, violates the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

LDF provides legal support for the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that public housing tenants cannot be evicted without prior notice under procedures required by federal regulatory guidance. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that Section Five of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 covers changes to election procedures. 

The U.S. Supreme Court invalidates the parade permit law of Birmingham, Alabama, as violative of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, posthumously vindicating Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 civil rights march in the city. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that state laws allowing the garnishment of wages without notice or a hearing violate the due process requirements of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that a Mississippi school district’s delay in desegregating the district violates Brown v. Board of Education’s mandate. 

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds grants of injunctive and declaratory relief for Black citizens challenging their exclusion from the jury selection process. 

Citing the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously invalidates a racially exclusionary process for selecting grand juries and school board members in Taliaferro County, Georgia. The Court finds that the use of subjective criteria for jury selection and a requirement that school board members own land served as a pretext for discriminating against Black citizens. 

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York holds that New York violated Muhammad Ali’s rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when it discriminatorily stripped him of his boxing license after his conviction for refusing drafted military service.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit forbids the city of Lackawanna, New York, from interfering in the construction of low-income housing in a predominantly white section of town, holding that such interference violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as the Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit holds that a Mississippi town violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and discriminated based on race by providing inferior services to Black neighborhoods “on the other side of the tracks.” 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a person charged with a criminal misdemeanor has the right to move their trial to another venue where jurors are not biased against them.  

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an employer may not, in the absence of business necessity, refuse to hire women with preschool-age children while hiring men with such children. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that neutral employment practices that have a discriminatory effect can violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if the practices result in different outcomes for Black people and white people, even when there is no discriminatory intent.

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the use of busing as a tool to desegregate public schools satisfies the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the conviction of Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) under the Military Selective Service Act for refusing to report for drafted military service. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that an incarcerated person filing a pro se complaint challenging the deprivation of their constitutional rights while in prison should be allowed to present evidence to support their claim before a court dismisses the case.  

The U.S. Supreme Court finds the grand jury selection process to be racially discriminatory in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution where statistical evidence demonstrates that Black jurors were excluded at a disproportionate rate and that selection procedures were not racially neutral. 

The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to allow public school systems to circumvent the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and hamper desegregation by creating new all-white or mostly white “splinter school districts.” 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the death penalty, as applied in the considered cases, violates the 14th Amendment and the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s protection against “cruel and unusual” punishment. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, defendants are entitled to have potential jurors interrogated about whether they harbor racial prejudice. 

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requires federal education officials to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds federal regulations under the Truth in Lending Act that require full disclosure to consumers of the actual cost of a loan or finance agreement. 

This seminal U.S. Supreme Court case establishes the framework under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for determining whether an employer has engaged in unlawful discrimination. The Court unanimously holds that a Black worker alleging racial discrimination meets their preliminary evidentiary burden with a minimal showing of discrimination. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds, in its first case addressing school segregation outside of the South, that where deliberate segregation affects a substantial part of a school system, the entire district must ordinarily be desegregated. 

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that it is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for the state to aid discrimination by providing free textbooks to children attending private schools that were established to allow white students to avoid public school desegregation. 

The U.S. Supreme Court applies the Education Amendments of 1972 to ensure attorneys’ fees for students and parents in protracted litigation to desegregate schools in Richmond, Virginia. 

The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirms that the Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed during Reconstruction, provides an independent remedy for employment discrimination. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that most victims of job discrimination are entitled to back-pay relief under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and it sets additional court standards for job-related employment testing. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that states may consider race in drawing electoral districts if necessary to comply with the Voting Rights Act and avoid a dilution of minority voting strength. The holding rejects the argument that doing so infringes on the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that capital punishment for rape violates the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, in a lawsuit alleging violations of the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, approves a settlement blocking the use of federal funds to build a hospital in a predominantly white suburb of Gary, Indiana, to replace a facility downtown where the new hospital would have deprived poor and minority city dwellers of adequate health care.  

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that, under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, schools can take race into account in admissions but cannot use quotas. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that, absent evidence of discriminatory intent, the at-large voting system of electing city commissioners in Mobile, Alabama, does not violate the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.  

In a racial discrimination class action lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that the District Court’s order barring plaintiffs’ counsel from communicating with the class of plaintiffs, Black and female employees of Gulf Oil Co., constituted an abuse of the District Court’s discretion under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The U.S. Supreme Court finds that the District Court’s order made it difficult for their attorney to obtain information to litigate the case.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approves a consent decree settlement in a case filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that ends the federal government’s use of a written test for entry-level hiring because it disproportionately disqualified Black and Latinx applicants from employment opportunities. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that imposing the death penalty in a felony murder and robbery case violates the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution when the person charged with a crime did not take a life, attempt to take a life, or intend to take a life.  

The U.S. Supreme Court appoints LDF Board Chair William T. Coleman Jr. as a “friend of the Court” in an IRS case against nonprofit private schools. The Supreme Court’s opinion affirms Coleman’s argument that nonprofit private schools that prescribe and enforce racially discriminatory admission standards on the basis of religious doctrine are not tax-exempt organizations under the Internal Revenue Code, nor are contributions tax-deductible charitable contributions. 

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana rejects arguments challenging the constitutionality of the “discriminatory effects” test under Section Two of the Voting Rights Act and holds that a redistricting scheme that diluted the voting power of Black residents violated the Voting Rights Act. 

Julius Chambers (1936-2013) becomes LDF’s third Director-Counsel. He serves until 1993.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama finds that several Alabama counties employed at-large electoral methods designed to intentionally discriminate against Black voters, in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from inflicting the death penalty upon an incarcerated person who has mental insanity. 

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that the system of at-large elections of state legislators in North Carolina illegally dilutes Black voting strength in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Court affirms that minority vote dilution violates the Voting Rights Act regardless of whether there is proof of discriminatory intent. 

After finding that Tennessee’s system of higher education had failed to eliminate residual vestiges of de jure segregation years after Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit approves a settlement agreement requiring the state to identify 75 promising Black sophomores each year and prepare them for later admission to the state’s graduate and professional schools. The Court affirms that the settlement agreement complies with the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court narrowly rejects U.S. constitutional challenges under the Eighth and 14th Amendments to Georgia’s death penalty. The Court disregards LDF’s famous Baldus study, which found that the death penalty in Georgia was imposed more often on Black defendants and people accused of killing white victims than on white defendants and people accused of killing Black victims. Despite the social science study demonstrating that racial discrimination permeates every aspect of the state’s capital punishment system, the Court finds that when decisionmakers do not act with a discriminatory purpose, there is no constitutional violation. 

LDF opens its Western Regional Office in Los Angeles, California, to provide legal assistance to Black communities in the western part of the United States. 

In lawsuit female employees brought challenging their employer’s seniority system under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that the act’s statute of limitations provision bars discrimination claims not filed within the required period after the unlawful employment practice occurred. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 later overturns this holding. 

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that, consistent with the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, federal courts can set aside state limitations on local taxing authority to ensure sufficient funds for the school desegregation plan of Kansas City, Missouri. 

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that when dissolving a desegregation decree under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, courts should consider whether school districts have complied in good faith with the decree and “whether the vestiges of past discrimination had been eliminated to the extent practicable.”  

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Voting Rights Act applies to state judicial elections to prohibit the imposition of voting qualifications or prerequisites in a manner resulting in the denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race or color. 

The Natural Resources Defense Council, LDF, and several other groups file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of a class of predominantly Black children in Oakland, California. The suit alleges that California violated the Medicaid Act and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by not implementing a program to detect and treat the children’s lead poisoning. Ten months later, the case is settled after California agrees to establish a program of blood testing and education to prevent lead poisoning. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit finds that Black and Hispanic residents of Los Angeles County, California, have demonstrated under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985 a “real and immediate threat of injury” and have standing under Article III to sue the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for mistreatment, including unlawful searches and detentions, beatings, shootings, terrorist activities, and destruction of property. The Court of Appeals vacates the District Court’s injunction and remands the case for further proceedings. When the case ultimately goes to trial in 1995, the jury returns a multi-million-dollar verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. In 1996, the District Court approves a settlement for $6 million payable to the class and allocates $1.5 million for use of force training by the Sheriff's Department.

Elaine R. Jones (b. 1944) becomes the fourth Director-Counsel of LDF and the first woman to lead the organization. She is also the first Director-Counsel to assume the additional role of President of LDF. She serves until 2004.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida approves a settlement agreement on behalf of Black employees and applicants, as well as white managers, for civil rights violations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and U.S. Code Section 1981, where Shoney’s Restaurant agrees to pay $132,500,000 in damages and to implement aggressive equal employment opportunity measures designed to eliminate any trace of unlawful racial discrimination in their recruitment, hiring, promotion, and treatment of employees. 

In a class action lawsuit, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas enters a national order requiring states and Medicaid providers to use blood lead testing to screen children for the presence of lead. Public health experts credit this case for the nationwide adoption of the blood lead testing requirement. 

Black residents of Erie County, New York, challenge the discriminatory administration of federal housing assistance, including the Section 8 program, as violative of their civil rights. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit finds that the lower court erred in dismissing all challenges on grounds that the residents lacked standing, and the Court allows them to seek monetary damages to remediate past discrimination. 

In an 18-year-old desegregation case in Kansas City, Missouri, the U.S. Supreme Court reverses the District Court’s order to remedy intentional discrimination by increasing teacher’s salaries and requiring the school district to fund quality education programs. The Court finds that the District Court exceeded its remedial authority under Brown v. Board of Education to only remedy de jure segregation. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit finds that Texas universities’ affirmative action plan violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution where the state’s interest in having a diverse student body is not a sufficient “compelling interest to support the use of race as a factor in admissions.” In this case, four students claimed that they were denied admittance to the University of Texas Law School in 1992 because of their race, alleging that less-qualified African American and Mexican American students were admitted. The U.S. Supreme Court declines to review the Fifth Circuit’s decision. 

The Connecticut Supreme Court holds that the state Constitution and state laws impose an affirmative obligation to ensure all students receive a “substantially equal” education, and finds that Hartford schools were in fact racially, ethnically, and economically isolated, in violation of Connecticut’s affirmative constitutional obligation to provide all school children with racially integrated and substantially equal educational opportunities. The Court orders the State to immediately remedy the racial isolation endemic to schools in the area around the state capital.  

In 1996, the parties agree to, and the District Court approves, a consent decree that commits the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to implementing “a detailed plan to improve bus service” after plaintiff bus riders brought a civil rights class action against the MTA for unlawfully discriminating against “inner-city and transit dependent bus riders” in its allocation of public transportation resources, in violation of federal civil rights statutes and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ten years later, the bus riders bring a claim alleging the MTA’s failure to comply with the consent decree. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upholds the settlement of the class action suit brought by the minority bus riders after 14 years of litigation.  

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturns a District Court’s grant of summary judgment for plaintiffs, voters from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, who challenged the apportionment of electoral districts as discriminatory in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court finds that the District Court erred in basing its “one person, one vote” analysis on the voting-age population instead of the total population and remands to provide the plaintiffs the opportunity to submit additional evidence in support of their claim that the districting plan was the result of bad faith, arbitrariness, or invidious discrimination. 

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously finds that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 allows a former employee to sue his ex-employer for providing a negative job reference in retaliation for filing a discrimination charge challenging his termination.  

The U.S. Supreme Court determines that a general arbitration clause in a collective bargaining agreement does not deprive an employee of his right to bring a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act in federal court. 

The New York Court of Appeals bars an attempt by New York City’s mayor to privatize public hospitals, and thereby cut hospital services to people with low incomes, in violation of New York statutory law. 

Thirty years of a court-supervised desegregation order ends in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina. 

The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the District Court’s grant of summary judgment for plaintiffs, North Carolina residents who alleged that state officials’ congressional redistricting plan creating a majority-Black voting district in North Carolina was racially motivated in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court finds that where the General Assembly’s motivation was in dispute, this case is not suitable for summary disposition. 

At LDF’s request, President Bill Clinton commutes the sentence of Kemba Smith, a young Black mother who received a minimum sentence of 24.5 years in prison after her abusive boyfriend led her to play a peripheral role in a cocaine conspiracy.  

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reverses the 28-year-old murder conviction of Wilbert Rideau where there was discrimination in the selection of the grand jury that originally indicted him four decades earlier in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court reverses a three-judge District Court ruling that the North Carolina state legislature used race as a predominant factor when drawing congressional district boundaries and tried to create a majority-Black voting district in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court finds that the North Carolina majority-minority district from which Mel Watt was elected to Congress was not an illegal racial gerrymander. 

A settlement is reached in a landmark class action suit filed on behalf of thousands of Black and Haitian American Floridians to enforce their rights under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution after they were unable to vote in the 2000 election. The settlement requires Florida to take concrete steps to improve the voting process.  

The U.S. Supreme Court finds in Gratz v. Bollinger that the undergraduate admissions formula of the University of Michigan (which LDF represented) granting minority applicants automatic preference violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  

In the landmark companion case Grutter v. Bollinger, challenging law school admissions policies, the U.S. Supreme Court distinguishes its decision from Gratz, holding that narrowly tailored race-conscious university admissions policies are compliant with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, where the use of race is one of many “plus factors” in an admissions program that considers the overall individual contribution of each candidate. This case vindicates a strategy that was devised and implemented over more than six years to support the educational benefits of diversity. 

The U.S. Supreme Court overturns Delma Banks Jr.’s death sentence in his federal habeas petition and remands the case for reconsideration in light of the prosecution’s withholding of impeachment evidence related to two principal witnesses. 

Theodore M. Shaw (b. 1954) becomes President and Director-Counsel of LDF, the fifth person to lead the organization. He serves until 2008. 

A monetary settlement is awarded after it was brought to light that approximately 10% of the Black community of Tulia, Texas, had been arrested in a drug “sting” operation based on unreliable testimony from a lone undercover agent with a checkered past. 

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California approves a consent decree requiring Abercrombie & Fitch to institute significant corporate reforms to promote workforce diversity and pay plaintiffs more than $40 million in relief for discriminating against Black, Latinx, and Asian American employees and applicants in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. 

In the Criminal District Court in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, a jury of 10 women and two men (including four Black jurors) finds Wilbert Rideau guilty of manslaughter and not murder, which permits his immediate release based on the 44 years he already served. This is Rideau’s fourth trial, after federal courts overturned three previous death sentences by all-white, all-male juries.  

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee grants the joint motion of LDF and the state of Tennessee to end nearly four decades of court supervision of the consent decree to desegregate Tennessee’s public colleges and universities, in recognition of the state’s progress in creating a higher education system that preserves access and educational opportunity for Black and white students. 

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down race-conscious school assignment plans in Seattle, Washington, and Jefferson County, Kentucky, that did not have the purpose of remedying past discrimination. The Court affirms that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution permits consideration of race when the purpose is to remedy past instances of discrimination or to promote diversity in higher education.  

John Payton (1946-2012) becomes President and Director-Counsel of LDF, the sixth person to lead the organization. He serves until his death.

The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas overturns the death sentence of LDF client Raymond Whitney, finding that because Whitney, a Black man who had been on Pennsylvania’s death row for 26 years, had mental illness and had been inadequately represented at trial, on appeal, and in his first post-conviction proceedings, executing him would be cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This is the first of three death penalty cases that LDF worked to successfully overturn in 2008. 

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approves a class action settlement requiring injunctive relief and damages of more than $20 million due to systemic employment discrimination by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation against its Black and Hispanic employees. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit grants relief to LDF client Herbert Williams Jr., who had been on Alabama’s death row for nearly 20 years, finding that his trial attorney failed to investigate and present evidence regarding the extreme abuse Williams suffered as a child at the hands of his parents. The Court of Appeals also reverses the District Court ruling that Williams had not properly presented his Batson v. Kentucky claim that the prosecutor unconstitutionally struck Black people from his jury. 

LDF settles a lawsuit filed in Indiana state court to ensure that eligible voters with property subject to foreclosure proceedings or evictions would not have their right to vote challenged during the 2008 election based on their foreclosure status in violation of Indiana law.  

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, in a habeas corpus petition, vacates the capital conviction and death sentence of LDF client Mariano Rosales, who had been on Texas’ death row for 23 years, because trial prosecutors had improperly excluded Black and Latinx prospective jurors due to their race in violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  

The U.S. Supreme Court declines to review the constitutionality of Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, holding that Section Four permits political subdivisions to be released from the requirement that they receive preclearance before changing their voting procedures. 

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously finds that the city of Chicago could be held accountable each time it used an exam for hiring that discriminated against qualified minority applicants and blocked them from becoming firefighters, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The case ultimately results in the hiring of 111 class members as firefighters and the payment of $78.5 million in back pay and pension contributions.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denies a motion by housing advocacy groups and homeowners to stop Louisiana from using a formula for awarding federal recovery funds that had a discriminatory impact on Black Americans seeking to rebuild and return to their homes after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit finds that, due to pervasive racial bias in Washington’s criminal legal system, the state’s felon disenfranchisement law amounts to a denial of the right to the vote on account of race in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act. 

Following a unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit declaring Mumia Abu-Jamal’s 1982 death sentence unconstitutional, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announces that it will not seek another death sentence against the journalist and activist.  

After 17 years of litigation, Black families, including current and former residents of public housing in Baltimore, Maryland, file a proposed settlement in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to resolve a long-running class action lawsuit where the Court held that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) violated the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by unfairly concentrating Black public housing residents in the most impoverished, segregated areas of Baltimore. The settlement, approved by the Court, requires HUD to take affirmative measures to eradicate the legacy of nearly a century of government-sponsored racial segregation in the Baltimore region.  

The Circuit Court of Hinds County, Mississippi, vacates a juvenile client’s sentence of life without parole for a crime committed when he was 16 years old and resentences him to life with parole eligibility. He becomes the first person in Mississippi with a juvenile life-without-parole sentence to be resentenced and the first in the state to be released on parole following the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement that life without parole for those under 18 at the time of their crime violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds race-conscious admissions as constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when it is narrowly tailored to support a compelling government interest. The Court remands the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for further review. LDF represents the Black Student Alliance at the University of Texas at Austin and the Black Ex-Students of Texas, Inc. 

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Section Four of the Voting Rights Act, ending preclearance requirements for voting law changes in jurisdictions with a history of discrimination. 

Sherrilyn Ifill (b. 1962) becomes President and Director-Counsel of LDF, the seventh person to lead the organization. She serves until 2022.

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Michigan’s Proposal Two voter initiative, which amended the state’s constitution to prohibit discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, or public contracting purposes. The Court holds that the judiciary has no authority in the U.S. Constitution to set aside the voters’ constitutional amendment. LDF represented a coalition of organizations and individuals with ties to state universities challenging Proposal Two as an infringement of the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights statutes.

The King County Superior Court in Washington reduces juvenile Jeremiah Bourgeois’ life-without-parole sentence to a minimum term of 25 years. He was only 14 years old at the time of the offense for which he was convicted. After 27 years of incarceration, he is released.  

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approves the settlement of a class action suit challenging the New York City Police Department’s discriminatory policies and practices concerning unlawful stops and arrests of public housing residents and their visitors. Black and Latinx New York City Housing Authority residents and guests brought the suit to enforce their rights under the Fourth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, the United States Housing Act, and the laws of New York City and State. 

LDF launches the Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI). TMI complements LDF’s traditional litigation strengths and brings critical capabilities to the fight for racial justice, including research and targeted advocacy campaigns. TMI also houses LDF’s Archives—a collection of material chronicling the legal history of the Civil Rights Movement.

The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirms that discrimination based on disparate impact is actionable under the Fair Housing Act. During the litigation, LDF submits an amicus brief, helps disseminate federal guidance on disparate impact, and partners with key stakeholders to mobilize public awareness around the litigation. 

Following the remand to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court again upholds the constitutionality of race-conscious admissions programs, finding that the University of Texas’ admissions policy complies with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. LDF represents the Black Student Alliance at the University of Texas at Austin and the Black Ex-Students of Texas, Inc., in oral arguments before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and in an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, holds that Texas’ 2011 voter photo identification law violated Section Two of the Voting Rights Act and that there is sufficient evidence to find that the Texas Legislature might have passed the law to discriminate against Black and Latinx voters. LDF presented oral arguments before the Court of Appeals on behalf of Black students and the Texas League of Young Voters Education Fund.  

The U.S. Supreme Court reverses the death sentence of Duane Buck where his trial attorney introduced evidence that suggested Buck was more likely to commit violent acts in the future because he is Black. LDF presented oral arguments on Buck’s behalf in the U.S. Supreme Court. 

LDF files a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. LDF alleges that: the commission was formed with the intent to discriminate against voters of color, in violation of the Fifth and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution; the president exceeded his executive authority in forming a commission to investigate individuals or a group of voters; and the commission’s skewed composition and predetermined findings violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act.  

Former, current, and prospective Black employees file a class action lawsuit against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and its contractors for denying them employment opportunities under a discontinued 2011 criminal background check policy, alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the District of Columbia Human Rights Act. In 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approves a settlement agreement to resolve the case. 

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana holds that at-large voting for the 32nd Judicial District Court deprives Black voters of the equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit holds that it was wrong for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to permit the predominantly white city of Gardendale, Alabama, to partially secede from the more racially diverse Jefferson County school system, a decision it determined was racially motivated in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  

The Third Circuit Court in Wayne County, Michigan, approves a settlement requiring the city of Detroit to provide financial relief to residents at risk of losing their homes due to the city’s discriminatory tax foreclosure policy. Plaintiffs had filed a class action lawsuit against the Wayne County Treasurer, Wayne County, and the city of Detroit alleging that the tax foreclosures disparately impacted Black residents in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.  

The Arkansas Supreme Court affirms the lower court’s decision to vacate Kenneth Reams’ death sentence based on ineffective assistance of counsel. Reams, a Black man, had been sentenced to death despite being an accessory to the crime and only 18 years old at the time of the crime.  

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama approves the settlement of a lawsuit challenging the at-large electoral system for the City Council of Pleasant Grove, Alabama, as a violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement and consent decree, Pleasant Grove agrees to change its method of electing members to the City Council from at-large to cumulative voting with no numbered places. 

LDF settles a class action suit challenging the New York City Department of Correction’s practice of randomly strip-searching individuals who visit city jails, in violation of the Fourth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article I Section 12 of the New York State Constitution. Per the settlement agreement entered in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, LDF wins $12.5 million for visitors who were subjected to the invasive searches and works with the city to revise officer training protocols.  

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approves a settlement to resolve LDF’s challenge to Target Corporation’s overly broad and outdated criminal background check policy, which discriminated against Black and Latinx applicants in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. As part of the settlement, Target agrees to institute a hiring process for class members to obtain jobs at any of Target’s approximately 1,800 U.S.-based retail stores.  

The Connecticut Superior Court approves a landmark agreement in the 30-year-old Connecticut school desegregation case, requiring the state to take affirmative measures to remediate the extreme racial and economic segregation of students in the city of Hartford in relation to its surrounding suburbs. LDF’s involvement began in 1989. 

The U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina grants a preliminary injunction that prohibits South Carolina from enforcing its witness signature requirement for absentee voters in the June 2020 primary election. The District Court finds that forcing people to obtain the signature of a third-party witness on their absentee ballots would endanger their health and safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that such restrictions could infringe on voters’ rights under the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana grants a preliminary injunction that requires Louisiana to extend the early voting period by three days and provide voters at the highest risk of serious illness from COVID-19 with the option to vote by mail in the November and December 2020 primary and general elections. The Court holds that the injunction is necessary to avoid infringing on the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia grants summary judgment to LDF and holds that the Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice had violated multiple requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. 

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia holds that the U.S. Postal Service’s widespread disruptions in mail delivery violate federal law and risk delaying the delivery of mail-in ballots, thereby causing voter disenfranchisement.  

Janai S. Nelson (b. 1971) becomes President and Director-Counsel of LDF, the eighth person to lead the organization. 

The U.S. Supreme Court affirms a preliminary injunction against Alabama’s 2021 congressional districts and finds that Alabama’s redistricting map is racially discriminatory, in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act. The Court also upholds the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act as applied to redistricting cases.  

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that race-based college admissions programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This ruling overturns Grutter v. Bollinger and Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. LDF long represented 25 Harvard student and alumni organizations as amici curiae, or “friends of the court,” in the Harvard lawsuit. 

The Louisiana State Legislature passes and Governor Jeff Landry signs into law a congressional map that adds a second majority-Black district, as a direct result of litigation initiated by LDF to challenge Louisiana’s discriminatory congressional redistricting maps as a violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act. The first majority-Black district was secured through the 1983 LDF case Major v. Treen. 

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that Colorado is not allowed to disqualify former President Donald Trump from its presidential primary ballot under Section Three of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Insurrection Clause. LDF had filed an amicus brief concerning whether Trump’s actions in connection with the January 6, 2021, insurrection should render him ineligible to be a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. 

The U.S. Supreme Court reverses and remands the decision of the three-judge panel for the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, which had found South Carolina’s 2021 congressional map an unconstitutional racial gerrymander in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.  

Despite the groundbreaking advances we have made, in recent years it has become increasingly clear that white supremacist ideologies have once again infiltrated mainstream American culture. This shift will be catastrophic if left unchecked—normalizing bigotry, reinvigorating voter suppression and school segregation, and exacerbating economic discrimination, mass incarceration, and police brutality.

But LDF was built for this—forged from the fires of our groundbreaking and successful challenges to Jim Crow-era practices and meticulously honed over the decades with the litigation and advocacy experience we now bring to battle each day. LDF’s founders had the courage to imagine a radically different America—a society in which Black people could live free from discrimination and fear and in which opportunity for a life of dignity and advancement could be reached. Our predecessors won many victories, but as is painfully apparent, there are no permanent victories. Challenges remain on every front in the battle for civil rights and equality.

Standing at this crossroads for our nation, LDF is tasked with envisioning the form that the next 80 years of civil rights struggles will take. With your support, we will bring the expertise of our legacy and the clarity of our vision to shape democracy for the 21st century.