Explain what is the NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Between 1940 and 1948, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund played a crucial role in eliminating racial segregation in Alabama and the nation. After the civil war, the first black lawyers were admitted to the profession, despite racial prejudice on their competency. However, Thurgood Marshall became the first general counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who took their achievements to the next level. He was instrumental in dismantling segregation against blacks from the public (Silk, & Silk, 1990). As the general counsel, Marshall launched an initiative by the LDF to help in cases against segregation in housing, voting, and education. Together with other black lawyers, Marshall traveled across the country to eliminate racial segregation.

  What is the Kerner Commission?

President Lyndon B. Johnson commissioned the Kerner Commission due to urban rioting in the mid and late 1960s. The commission reported that the riots resulted from racism and rampant discrimination in labor markets and housing against black Americans. In turn, black Americans were faced with limited labor market options and poor neighborhood conditions leading to limited housing options, poor schools, extreme segregation, and concentrated poverty (Boger, 1992). The report identified full integration as the long-term solution and argued that through the government target and large scale investment in education, more robust social insurance programs, employment programs, and housing would provide more immediate relief and stop the riots. However, the recommendations were not adopted by the president.

 

Explain Brown vs. Board of Education

Brown vs. Board of Education remains to be one of the fundamental milestones of the civil rights movement. After his daughter, Linda Brown was denied entry into an all-white elementary school in Topeka, Oliver Brown file a case again Topeka’s board of education. The case provided LDF with a chance to completely overturn the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson after nearly 20 years of evolving legal strategy (Silk, & Silk, 1990).

References

Boger, J. C. (1992). Race and the American City: The Kerner Commission in Retrospect-An Introduction. NCL Rev., 71, 1289.

Silk, C., & Silk, J. (1990). Racism and anti-racism in American popular culture: Portrayals of African-Americans in fiction and film. Manchester University Press.