The  1950's

• 1951>Reverend Oliver Brown files suit against the Board of Education of Topeka seeking equal education for his daughter, Linda Brown.
• 1954>The United States Supreme Court rules that a school system exercising "separate but equal" was in fact "inherently unequal"
• 1955>The Supreme Court orders districts to desegregate schools with "all deliberate speed" in a decision known as Brown II. However, many southern states resist this order.
• 1955>Rosa Parks, a black woman, refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. She was arrested and her trial led to a 381-day boycott of the bus system.
• 1956>The Supreme Court rules that segregation on public transportation is illegal
• 1957>Nation Guard troops escort 9 black students into a newly integrated high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.
• 1959>Prince Edward county closes all public schools in order to avoid having to implement the Brown Decision.

The 1960's

• 1964>Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, barring discrimination in voting, public accomodations, schools and employment opportunities.

The 1970's

• 1971>Supreme Court rules that busing is an acceptable way of desegregationg public schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina.
• 1979> Black lawyers return to court seeking to speed up the desegragation of the school system.

The 1980's

• 1988>School integration reaches an all time high. According to the Harvard Civil Rights Project, 45% of of black students were enrolled in majority-white schools.

The 1990's

• 1991> The Supreme Court allows school districts to declare themselves integrates in the case of Oklahoma City v. Dowell. The national resegregation trend picks up.
• 1994>A federal judge orders the Topeka School District to "eliminate the vestiges" of segregation. A subsequent plan included the closure of 13 predominantly black schools and the opening of two magnet schools.

The 2000's

• 2003>The Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in higher-education admissions in the case of Grutter v. Bollinger, but rules against fixed racial quotas.