Learn about the case — historical background and documents
The Judicial Process: A Chronology
September 4, 1952
New Orleans attorney A.P. Tureaud, with the assistance of the NAACP, filed a complaint in federal district court in New Orleans challenging the constitutionality of racial segregation in the public schools. Tureaud sued on behalf of a group of black students, led by Edward Bush. By agreement between the parties, proceedings on this complaint were suspended pending the Supreme Court’s resolution of the Brown v. Board of Education case.
May 17, 1954
The Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, declared legally enforced public school segregation to be unconstitutional.
May 31, 1955
The Supreme Court issued its second decision in Brown v. Board of Education, holding that school desegregation must proceed “with all deliberate speed,” but setting no specific timetable.
August 20, 1955
Attorney A.P. Tureaud filed an amended complaint in the Bush case seeking (1) a declaration that the state anti-desegregation statutes and state constitutional provisions mandating segregation violated the U.S. Constitution and (2) an order requiring the desegregation of the New Orleans schools.
February 15, 1956
A three-judge federal district court, composed of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Wayne Borah and U.S. District Court Judges Herbert Christenberry and J. Skelly Wright, ruled that the Louisiana constitutional provision and state statutes requiring school segregation were unconstitutional. On the same day, U.S. District Court Judge Skelly Wright ordered the Orleans Parish School Board to move “with all deliberate speed” to desegregate the New Orleans schools. Judge Wright imposed no timetable on the school board to begin desegregation.
March 1, 1957
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision affirming Judge Wright’s February 15, 1956, order prohibiting further segregation of schoolchildren in New Orleans. Judge Elbert Tuttle wrote the opinion, joined by Judges Richard Rives and John Brown. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit refused a request for an en banc hearing and the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the decision.
July 15, 1959
Judge Wright imposed on the Orleans Parish School Board a deadline of March 1, 1960, by which time it had to file with the court a desegregation plan for the Orleans Parish schools. Wright subsequently extended this deadline to May 16, 1960.
May 16, 1960
After the Orleans Parish School Board notified Judge Wright that it could not file a desegregation plan because of state restrictions on its authority, Wright put in place his own plan requiring the desegregation of the Orleans Parish schools beginning with the first grade in September 1960. Judge Wright’s plan provided that “all children entering the first grade may attend either the formerly all white public school nearest their homes, or the formerly all Negro public school nearest their homes, at their option.”
June 2, 1960
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit turned down the Orleans Parish School Board’s request that the panel stay Judge Wright’s May 16, 1960, desegregation order.
July 10, 1960
Justice Hugo Black, acting for the Supreme Court of the United States, refused to stay Judge Wright’s May 16 desegregation order. The full Court concurred in the fall.
August 30, 1960
At the request of the Orleans Parish School Board, Judge Wright delayed implementation of his desegregation order from September 8 until November 14, 1960, and Wright accepted the board’s desegregation plan, which gave the board greater authority over the placement of black students who requested transfer to previously all-white schools.
November 10, 1960
A few hours after a new legislative committee assumed control of the Orleans Parish schools, Judge Wright issued a temporary restraining order against the seizure of the Orleans Parish School Board by the state legislature.
November 13, 1960
At 9:45 p.m., following the adjournment of a special session of the state legislature, Judge Wright issued restraining orders against the entire 140-member state legislature, the governor and lieutenant governor, and various other state and local of- ficials, prohibiting them from interfering with the operation of the public schools the following day.
November 14, 1960
On the day the four black girls entered formerly all-white elementary schools, Judge Wright issued another temporary restraining order prohibiting state officials from removing the elected school board.
November 30, 1960
The three-judge federal district court, consisting of Rives, Christenberry, and Wright, issued an order restraining more than 700 state and local government officials, including the governor and the state legislature, from interfering with desegregation. The court also declared unconstitutional the Louisiana legislature’s interposition law, which attempted to nullify desegregation orders by the federal courts.
December 12, 1960
The Supreme Court unanimously rejected the request of state officials to stay the November 30 order of the three-judge court.
December 21, 1960
The three-judge federal district court struck down a state statute vesting the governor with authority to appoint a new school board in Orleans Parish in place of the duly elected board. The court held in contempt state officials who had withheld the pay of teachers at the two desegregated schools and of more than fifty members of the Orleans Parish administrative staff. The court also removed the state legislature’s restrictions on the school board’s funds and restrained the legislature from replacing the school board counsel.
March 20, 1961
The Supreme Court affirmed three decisions of the three-judge court in the New Orleans school desegregation fight: the August 27, 1960, order declaring unconstitutional seven acts enacted by the Louisiana state legislature in the summer of 1960; the November 30, 1960, order declaring unconstitutional Louisiana’s Act of Interposition and the other statutes enacted during the November special session of the legislature; and the December 21, 1960, judgment that provided, among other things, that banks in New Orleans must honor Orleans Parish school checks despite the instructions of the state legislature to the contrary.
April 3, 1962
Judge Wright issued his final order in the New Orleans desegregation case, providing that in the fall of 1962 grades one through six of the New Orleans schools would be desegregated.
May 23, 1962
U.S. District Judge Frank Ellis, Judge Wright’s replacement on the federal bench in New Orleans, vacated Wright’s final order and restored the schedule for the desegregation of the New Orleans schools to one grade each year.
Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board and the Desegregation of New Orleans Schools