* Brown v. Board of Education (1954): This landmark Supreme Court case declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The "separate but equal" doctrine, established in *Plessy v. Ferguson* (1896), was overturned. This decision was a crucial legal victory, but its implementation was far from immediate or easy.
* Civil Rights Movement: The Brown decision fueled the Civil Rights Movement, which used various methods—marches, protests, sit-ins, boycotts—to pressure for desegregation. Activists faced significant resistance and violence in many parts of the country. Groups like the NAACP played a key role in litigation and advocacy.
* Federal Intervention: The federal government, under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and later administrations, played a progressively larger role in enforcing desegregation. This included executive orders, the deployment of federal troops (as in Little Rock, Arkansas), and the passage of civil rights legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These laws provided legal tools to combat resistance to desegregation.
* Court-Ordered Busing: In the decades following *Brown*, many school districts resisted desegregation. To address this, courts increasingly ordered busing—transporting students across neighborhoods to achieve racial balance—as a tool to dismantle *de facto* segregation (segregation that existed in practice, even without explicit laws). Busing became a highly controversial issue, sparking protests and white flight from urban school districts.
* Continued Legal Challenges and Evolving Strategies: Desegregation efforts continued to face legal challenges and adaptations over time. Strategies shifted from focusing solely on racial balance to addressing issues of educational equity and achievement gaps that persisted after formal segregation ended. The concept of "affirmative action" emerged as a way to address historical inequalities in education.
It's important to note that while *Brown v. Board of Education* legally ended segregation, its legacy continues to affect American society. De facto segregation persists in many areas, manifested through residential segregation and unequal access to resources. The fight for truly equitable education continues to this day.