Our 2026 Keynote Speaker

In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, which violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The decision overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and paved the way for the desegregation of schools across the United States.

Yet, even with the Supreme Court's unanimous decision, it took several years and multiple attempts before schools were fully integrated, as seen in the case of six-year-old Ruby Bridges in 1960.  One of those attempts to integrate schools in 1957 was 15-year-old Ms. Dorothy Counts, who integrated the Harry P. Harding High School in Charlotte, NC. 

After four days of harassment that threatened her safety and the safety of her family, her parents decided to withdraw her from the school, but the images of Dorothy being verbally assaulted by her classmates were seen around the world.

Famed African American Writer, Author, and Civil Rights Leader James Baldwin (who was living in France at the time) saw the images of Dorothy Counts and said it compelled him to return to the United States from France to write about civil rights in the South.

He wrote, “There was unutterable pride, tension and anguish in that girl's face as she approached the halls of learning, with history jeering at her back,” he later said. “It made me furious."

By 1960, when little Ruby Bridges integrated the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, she was escorted to school by four federal marshals to ensure her safety.  Thus making Dorothy Counts-Scoggins a forerunner and trailblazer for all schools being fully integrated in the United States.