Although the Declaration of Independence stated that “All men are created equal,” it took a series of legal decisions in the 1950’s culminating in the Brown decision to end segregation in public schools.
While many attorneys know the importance of Brown, not many know the story of how this landmark case arrived at the Supreme Court and the years of legal work that paved the way to one of the most important legal decisions in American jurisprudence. Geeta N. Kapur will tell the story by breaking down the four legal cases that led to Brown, exploring the five communities that challenged segregation & discrimination in schools and discussing the Brown decision as a landmark in American justice. Geeta will also discuss the “Doll Tests,” the importance of Social Science data, Jim Crow Laws & Black Codes, Earl Warren & the Supreme Court, the leading lawyers including Thurgood Marshall, Spottswood Robinson III, Louis L. Redding & James Nabrit, Jr., the “All Deliberate Speed” standard and Southern state’s responses.
A native of Kenya, Geeta N. Kapur is a civil rights attorney and alumna of UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law. She is the author of, “To Drink from the Well: The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nation’s Oldest Public University.”