The NAACP's Legal Strategy Against Segregated Education, 1925-1950

Mark Tushnet presents the story of the NAACP's legal campaign against segregated schools as a case study in public interest law, which in fact began in the United States with that very campaign. Drawing extensively on the NAACP papers now housed at the Library of Congress, Tushnet analyzes why the NAACP chose to pursue litigation against segregated schooling, how the campaign evolved over two decades of challenges to the system of "separate but equal," and to what at last spurred the...
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Mark Tushnet presents the story of the NAACP's legal campaign against segregated schools as a case study in public interest law, which in fact began in the United States with that very campaign. Drawing extensively on the NAACP papers now housed at the Library of Congress, Tushnet analyzes why the NAACP chose to pursue litigation against segregated schooling, how the campaign evolved over two decades of challenges to the system of "separate but equal," and to what at last spurred the NAACP's lawyers to undertake the direct legal attack against segregation, which led to the landmarkBrown v. Board of Educationdecision in 1954. Unlike previous accounts of the campaign, this study shows that the organizational needs of the NAACP and the personal views of its lawyers shaped and reshaped the strategy used to fight racial bias in American education.
Tushnet argues that public interest law has to be considered a social process. He therefore examines how the NAACP's efforts illustrate the general problems that public interest organizations have in mobilizing support, managing internal conflict, and dealing with the competing views of other groups. He also offers an insight into the ethical issues specific to litigation campaigns.