The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools are permissible under the state's constitution. (1849)

The Supreme Court allowed a state to levy taxes on Black and white citizens alike while providing a public school for white children only. (1899)

A federal court required equal salaries for African-American and white teachers. (1940)

The Supreme Court ordered the admission of a Black student to the University of Oklahoma School of Law, a white school, because there was no law school for Blacks. (1948)

The Supreme Court refused to allow public school systems to avoid desegregation by creating new, mostly or all-white "splinter districts." (1972)

The Supreme Court ruled that education is not a "fundamental right" and that the Constitution does not require equal education expenditures within a state. The ruling had the effect of locking minority and poor children who live in low-income areas into inferior schools. (1973)

A fractured Supreme Court declared the affirmative action admissions program for the University of California Davis Medical School unconstitutional because it set aside a specific number of seats for Black and Latino students. The Court ruled that race can be a factor in university admissions, but it cannot be the deciding factor. (1978)

The Supreme Court ruled that the adoption of race-neutral measures does not, by itself, fulfill the Constitutional obligation to desegregate colleges and universities that were segregated by law. (1992)

The Supreme Court set a new goal for desegregation plans: the return of schools to local control. It emphasized again that judicial remedies were intended to be "limited in time and extent." (1995)

A federal appeals court prohibited the use of race in college and university admissions, ending affirmative action in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. (1996)

A study by Harvard's Civil Rights Project found that schools were more segregated in 2000 than in 1970, when busing for desegregation began. A report from the Civil Rights Project also concluded that America's schools are re-segregating. (2002)

The Supreme Court upheld diversity as a rationale for affirmative action programs in higher education admissions, but concluded that point systems are not appropriate. A federal district court case affirmed the value of racial diversity and race-conscious student assignment plans in K-12 education. (2003)

In "Parents Involved," the Supreme Court found voluntary school integration plans unconstitutional, paving the way for contemporary school segregation to escalate. (2007)