1930The National Bar Association was concerned about private and municipal law libraries excluding black lawyers from their premises because of race. Throughout the decade, Mrs. Sadie Tanner Mosell Alexander and her husband, Raymond Pace Alexander, initiated legal fights that began to open up restaurants, hotels, and movie theaters to blacks in Philadelphia.

1935Howard Law Dean and scholar Charles Hamilton Houston was also counsel to the NAACP. With his protégée Thurgood Marshall (who would later become a member), Houston began challenging Jim Crow in education with a successful challenge to racial segregation at the University of Maryland School of Law. They moved through the South, challenging Jim Crow in graduate schools and law schools before ending up where they always wanted to be: in the United States Supreme Court with a dream team of lawyers arguing that segregation in K-12 education violates the United States Constitution.

1937The late William Henry Hastie was appointed the nation’s first black federal judge.

1950Sweatt v. Painter ~ Encouraged by their victory in Gaines’ case, the NAACP continued to attack legally sanctioned racial discrimination in higher education. In 1946, an African American named Heman Sweatt applied to the University of Texas Law School. Hoping that it would not have to admit Sweatt to the “white” law school if a “Black” school already existed, elsewhere on the University’s campus, the state hastily set up an underfunded “Black” law school. At this point, Sweatt employed the services of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and sued to be admitted to the University’s “white” law school. He argued that the education he received in the “Black” law school was not of the same academic caliber as the one he would receive if he attended the “white” law school. When the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1950, the Court unanimously agreed with him, citing the blatant inequalities between the University’s law school (the school for whites) and the hastily erected school for Blacks and that the “Black” law school was “separate” but not “equal.” Like the Murray case, the Court found the only appropriate remedy for this situation was to admit Sweatt to the University’s law school.

1954Brown v. Board of Education ~ The case that came to be known as Brown v. Board of Education was the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. These cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. While the facts of each case are different, the main issue in each was the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools. Once again, Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund handled these cases. When the cases came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court consolidated all five cases under the name of Brown v. Board of Education. Meeting to decide the case, the Justices of the Supreme Court realized that they were deeply divided over the issues raised. While most wanted to reverse Plessy and declare segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, they had various reasons for doing so. Unable to come to a solution by June 1953 (the end of the Court’s 1952-1953 term), the Court decided to rehear the case in December 1953. During the intervening months, however, Chief Justice Fred Vinson died and was replaced by Gov. Earl Warren of California. After the case was reheard in 1953, Chief Justice Warren was able to do something that his predecessor had not — i.e. bring all of the Justices to agree to support a unanimous decision declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On May 14, 1954, he delivered the opinion of the Court, stating that “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. . .”

1971Flowers was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1971.

1972The Women’s Division of the NBA was approved in October.

1972During the 46th Annual NBA Convention in Atlanta, the NBA tried to organize a student division. The effort failed, but today there is a growing number of law student members.

1977Flowers was the first black named a special circuit judge for Jefferson County.

1978Proved to be the “Year of Affirmative Action.” In the wake of Bakke v. Regents of the University of California, the organization addressed pressing issues laid bare by this momentous decision.

1992The NBA submitted comments to the proposed “incubator” program described by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in its Memorandum Opinion and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, FCC 92-361, released September 4, 1992. In that same year, comments were also submitted in response to the Notice of Proposal Policy Guidance issued by the United States Department of Education and published in the Federal Register on December 1, 1991. 1995 – The Million Man March, also known as the Holy Day of Atonement, took place on October 16 in Washington, DC. The call to organize one million black men to stand up for their families, and communities and to atone with one another came from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Although Hon. Min. Farrakhan called for one million men, and more than two million men from all over the nation showed up. The Holy Day of Atonement/Anniversary of the Million Man March is celebrated annually on October 16 by fasting, praying, focusing on atonement and reconciliation, and not buying anything that day to show economic solidarity. 1996 – The NBA submitted comments before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the Matter of Streamlining Broadcast EEO Rules and Policies, Vacating the EEO Forfeiture Policy Statement, and Amending Section 1.80 of the Commission’s Rules to Include EEO Forfeiture Guidelines.