While minority students had attended Shortridge from the very beginning, it was chiefly a white school until 1927, when the Indiana state legislature passed its first desegregation laws.

In 1968 the Milwaukee Common Council approved a desegregation law after a federal housing law was passed.

As 30 years of desegregation law have made clear, the Constitution requires more than ceasing to promote segregation.

This was one of the central themes of his speech-that by implementing desegregation laws and policies the federal government was oppressing the people of Alabama and depriving them of their rights.

Instead, he talked about "state's rights," which many Southern blacks regard as shorthand for the purported right of a state like Mississippi to ignore desegregation laws.

His major accomplishment as governor was the passage of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, the first desegregation law passed by a southern state.

On May 20, 1961, the Freedom Riders, attempting to test desegregation laws on inter-state buses, arrived in Montgomery.

After desegregation laws were passed, MJC merged with T.J. Harris Junior College in 1970, which had previously enrolled African-American students.

As in many other cities across the country at this time, many white citizens took action against the desegregation laws.

No previous ruling has held that the exclusion of minority students from such classes violates desegregation law and is therefore discriminatory.