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===School Desegregation===
The Legal Defense Fund began its work in the 1930s and looked toward desegregating professional schools as a way to confront the environment of Jim Crow. It was believed that in opening doors for Blacks in these settings would allow the expansion of Black professionals that would then serve the Black community. In a series of cases, they were able to undo the segregationist policies of law schools in Maryland (''Murray v. Maryland''), Missouri (''State ex rel. Gaines v. Canada''), and eventually Oklahoma (''McLaurin v. Oklahoma'') and Texas (''Sweatt v. Painter'').
[[File:houston.jpg|thumb|Charles Hamilton Houston]]
All the while, the desegregation of public school resources was on the agenda. Houston passed away in 1950, leaving the work to a group of young attorneys, including eventual Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall. Together, they led the legal strategy that eventuated in the school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. A collection of five cases of educational discrimination and inequality from around the country, the strategy pivoted on demonstrating that segregation was inherently unequal, which demanded the remedy that there should not be two separate school systems. Their argument won and on May 17, 1954, the Court declared segregation unconstitutional. A year later, the Court demanded, however, that integration could proceed with “all deliberate speed.” This meant that integration would not be immediate.
