Struggle & Resistance Achievement & Excellence

May 1955

In Brown II on May 31, 1955, the Supreme Court orders school desegregation proceed with 'all deliberate speed' — a deliberately vague standard proposed by Justice Felix Frankfurter. The phrase is interpreted by Southern school districts as permission to delay indefinitely. In 1964, ten years after Brown I, only 2.3 percent of Black students in the South attend school with white students. The 'all deliberate speed' standard is widely criticized as sacrificing Black children's rights to political feasibility.

Events

May 31, 1955
Brown II 'All Deliberate Speed' Ruling Enables Decades of Delay
In Brown II on May 31, 1955, the Supreme Court orders school desegregation proceed with 'all deliberate speed' — a deliberately vague standard proposed by Justice Felix Frankfurter. The phrase is interpreted by Southern school districts as permission to delay indefinitely. In 1964, ten years after Brown I, only 2.3 percent of Black students in the South attend school with white students. The 'all deliberate speed' standard is widely criticized as sacrificing Black children's rights to political feasibility.
May 7, 1955
NAACP Leader Reverend George Lee Shot Dead for Registering to Vote
Reverend George Lee of Belzoni, Mississippi, a grocer and NAACP leader who had registered to vote and encouraged others to do so, is shot and killed while driving on May 7, 1955. Lead pellets are found in his jaw but local authorities rule his death a traffic accident. The sheriff tells reporters the pellets might be dental fillings. No arrests are made. Lee had been warned to take his name off the voter rolls and refused.