This Day in History

Feb. 15, 1848: Benjamin Roberts Filed the First School Desegregation Suit

Time Periods: 1800
Themes: African American, Democracy & Citizenship, Education
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On Feb. 15, 1848, Benjamin Roberts filed the first school desegregation suit after his daughter Sarah was barred from a public school based on her race in Boston.

Artwork by E. B. Lewis from the picture book, The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial.

The plaintiff’s attorneys were Robert Morris, one of the country’s first African-American lawyers, and Charles Sumner.

This was the first trial case about school segregation and indirectly related to the 1855 ban of segregated schools in all of the state of Massachusetts and the 1954 ban on segregated schools nationally.

Read about this historic case in Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America from Beacon Press and find related resources below.

Related Resources
Woman screaming at Elizabeth Ann Eckford | Zinn Education Project
Teaching Activities (Free)

“A School Year Like No Other”: Eyes on the Prize: “Fighting Back: 1957-1962”

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 7 pages.
A companion lesson to the Eyes on the Prize segment on school desegregation.

Books: Non-Fiction

Silver Rights: The Story of the Carter Family’s Brave Decision to Send Their Children to an All-White Schools and Claim Their Civil Rights

Book — Non-fiction. By Constance Curry. Introduction by Marian Wright Edelman. 1996. 288 pages.
The story of the Carter family’s decision to send their children to an all-white school in Drew, Mississippi.

Books: Non-Fiction

Separate No More: The Long Road to Brown v. Board of Education

Book — Non-fiction. By Lawrence Goldstone. 2021.
A portrait of the road to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

Profiles

Charles Sumner

Profile.
Charles Sumner, Civil War and Reconstruction era politician in the United States.

This Day in History

Jan. 5, 1931: Lemon Grove Incident

Mexican-American students were barred from attending their local elementary school. The parents took the school district to court.

This Day in History

June 5, 1950: The Supreme Court and School Segregation Cases

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in three cases that weakened the structure of legalized segregation.

This Day in History

April 23, 1951: 16-Year-Old Barbara Johns Leads a Student Strike

Barbara Johns (16-years-old) led her classmates in a strike to protest the substandard conditions in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

Little Rock Schools | Zinn Education Project
This Day in History

Sept. 12, 1958: Little Rock Public Schools Closed

Governor Orval Faubus closed all Little Rock, Arkansas public schools for one year rather than allow integration.

This Day in History

April 18, 1959: Students Petition and March for Integrated Schools

26,000 high school and college students came to Washington, D.C. to demand the end of segregated schools.

This Day in History

June 26, 1959: Prince Edward County Closes Public Schools

Rather than desegregate, the Prince Edward County, Virginia Board of Supervisors refused to appropriate money from the County School Board to the public schools.

Charles Hamilton Houston, portrait by Robert Shetterly of Americans Who Tell the Truth.
This Day in History

Oct. 29, 1969: Supreme Court Rules Schools Must Desegregate

The Supreme Court ruled that schools in the U.S. had to desegregate “immediately,” instead of the previous ruling of “with all deliberate speed.”