The Legal Strategy
On the steps of the Supreme Court, on the day in 1954 that Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was decided, are the architects of the NAACP legal strategy in the Brown case and dozens of others. Together (from left to right), George E. C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit pursued cases that undermined the constitutional foundation of racial segregation. Their efforts were not enough to destroy Jim Crow, however — that would take marches, protests, and sacrifices from ordinary citizens. AP Images.