Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 6 P5 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 28 . National League in the 1890s and after the turn of the century the influential author and activist W. E. B. Du Bois. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People naacp established in 1909 became the most powerful force for the repeal of Jim Crow laws during the next half century. The NAACP fought numerous battles in two important arenas the court of public opinion and the courts of law. At first legal progress came slowly. In a series of decisions in the 1940s the . Supreme Court began to dismantle individual Jim Crow laws and practices. The Court ruled that political parties could not exclude voters from primary elections on the basis of race Smith v. Allwright 321 . 649 64 S. Ct. 757 88 L. Ed. 987 1944 . It ruled that black passengers on interstate buses need not follow the segregation laws of the states through which those buses passed Morgan v. Virginia 328 . 373 66 S. Ct. 1050 90 L. Ed. 1317 1946 . It also held that the judiciary could no longer enforce private agreements called restrictive covenants that excluded ownership or occupancy of property based on race Shelley v. Kraemer 334 . 1 68 S. Ct. 836 92 L. Ed. 1161 1948 . By 1950 legal changes were coming in droves. The Court decided in favor of black student Heman Marion Sweatt concerning his appeal for entrance to the University of Texas Law School. In Sweatt v. Painter 339 . 629 70 S. Ct. 848 94 L. Ed. 1114 1950 the Court ruled that the educational opportunities offered to white and black law students by the state of Texas were not substantially equal and that the equal protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment required that Sweatt be admitted to classes with white students at the University of Texas law school. Four years later came the Court s most significant decision affecting Jim Crow brown v. board of education 347 . 483 74 S. Ct. 686 98 L. Ed. 873 1954 . Overturning the precedent that had existed since Plessy in 1896 the Court in Brown decreed .
