70th Anniversary of Famous Durham Education Lawsuit Decision

The landmark 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v Ferguson institutionalized racial segregation in the South and in other portions of the United States. Thus, the theory of “separate but equal” thrived, even though very little emphasis was placed on the “equal” aspect of that phrase.

Exactly 70 years ago, on January 26, 1951, federal judge Johnson J. Hayes rendered a famous school funding decision in a case that had been brought by the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs and several black families. These parents filed the lawsuit on behalf of their school-age children.

Judge Hayes announced his decision in favor of the plaintiffs from the same courthouse that was recently named for John H. Wheeler.

Blue v. Durham, challenged the Durham City Schools’ practice of allocating more funding for buildings, books, curriculum materials, and teachers for white schools than for black schools.

The legal success of Blue v. Durham served as a model for other North Carolina communities during the “separate-but-equal” era.   Also, Blue v. Durham caused the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other civil rights groups to take the next step, which was to appeal through the courts for school desegregation.

The lead attorneys for the case were Durham’s John H. Wheeler and M. Hugh Thompson.  They were assisted by a Richmond law firm that included Oliver W. Hill, Martin A. Martin, and Spotswood Robinson.  

A year after the successful legal strategy that emerged from the Blue case, the Richmond lawyers and Thurgood Marshall applied many of the same 14th Amendment arguments in a Prince Edward County, Virginia case that ultimately was combined with Brown v Topeka, Kansas.

So, a strong argument can be made that the 1951 case of Blue v. Durham had a direct link to the landmark Brown v. Board Supreme Court case of 1954.   In other words, … Blue led to Brown.

Submitted by Eddie Davis, Public History Researcher