If the courts
could be persuaded to understand the Constitution differently,
legal segregation might well be found to be unconstitutional. The
judicial system to some degree reacts to popular pressure and
events, and it too was influenced by the need to justify American
democracy to the rest of the world.
The N.A.A.C.P. had already mounted a broad, concerted attack
against legal segregation before the Second World War. When
Walter White defeated W. E. B. DuBois in a struggle for
leadership, he confirmed the Association's emphasis on striving
for an integrated society. The number of white and middle-class
black supporters of the N.A.A.C.P. grew, and its treasury
prospered. The Association chose to concentrate its efforts on a
gradual, relentless attack against segregation through the
courts. Believing that education was an all-important factor in
society, it decided that school desegregation should become the
major target.
Thurgood Marshall was the master strategist in the school
desegregation campaign. He decided that the attack should be a
slow, indirect one. Most Southern school systems, although they
had developed two separate institutions, had not established
separate graduate and professional facilities for Negroes.
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