Special Collection: Featured Historical Cases

Historical (typed) docket in Liddell v. School Board of St. Louis

Docket in Liddell v. School Board of St. Louis

Liddell v. Bd. of Ed. of St. Louis, Docket (1972)

This collection gathers a number of civil rights cases of great historical significance for which the Clearinghouse has made a special effort to include a larger-than-typical portion of the documents, and to summarize with a bit more historical context. It includes, for example,

Early school desegregation cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, Milliken v. Bradley (Detroit), Liddell v. Board of Educ. of St. Louis
The earliest (and longest lasting) public housing discrimination case, Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority/Gautreaux v. Hills
The first educational sexual harassment case, Alexander v. Yale
A 1970s housing discrimination lawsuit against the Trumps, United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, Inc.
Among the very first prisoners rights trials, Jordan v. Fitzharris
Early employment discrimination class actions, including U.S. v. IBEW, #38 (against a union), and EEOC, Hodgson, and U.S. v. AT&T (sex discrimination)

We don't have the complete record for these (except for Gautreaux), but we have made significant extra efforts.

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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT

CODING IN PROCESS

EEOC, Hodgson, and U.S. v. AT&T

2:73-00149 | U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Filed Date: 1973

Closed Date: 1979

(There's no summary yet, while we research the case.)

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT

CODING IN PROCESS

United States v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, #38

67-00575 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio

Filed Date: 1967

[This summary is temporary while we research the case.] This is a lawsuit in which the plaintiffs alleged that a branch of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers had discriminated again…

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PRISON CONDITIONS

Duran v. Martinez

1:77-cv-00721 | U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico

Filed Date: Nov. 15, 1977

Case Ongoing

On 11/15/1977, prisoners of the Penitentiary of New Mexico, represented by the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a Section 1983 class action suit in the District of…

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Alexander v. Yale

3:77-cv-00277 | U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

Filed Date: July 3, 1977

Closed Date: Sept. 22, 1980

This case was the first sexual harassment case brought under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., which bans sex discrimination in education by institutions that re…

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FAIR HOUSING/LENDING/INSURANCE

United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, Inc.

1:73-01529 | U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

Filed Date: Oct. 15, 1973

Closed Date: June 10, 1977

This case was brought against Fred and Donald Trump, and their real estate company, in 1973 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. In October 1973, the Justice Department f…

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SCHOOL DESEGREGATION

Liddell v. Board of Education for the City of St. Louis

4:72-cv-00100 | U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri

Filed Date: Feb. 18, 1972

Case Ongoing

Background On February 18, 1972, five African-American parents and their minor children filed this class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. They sued the …

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SCHOOL DESEGREGATION

Milliken v. Bradley

2:70-cv-35257 | U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Filed Date: Aug. 18, 1970

Closed Date: Jan. 6, 1995

This landmark case is about racial segregation in the Detroit metropolitan area schools, and has been described as the most significant school desegregation case since Brown v. Board of Education, 34…

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HEALTHCARE ACCESS AND REPRODUCTIVE ISSUES

70-03690 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Filed Date: March 3, 1970

Closed Date: Feb. 26, 1973

(This temporary is summary while we research the case). This case, filed by Jane Roe, ultimately led to the Supreme Court's holding that abortion was a fundamental right. This decision was later over…

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Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority

1:66-cv-01459 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Filed Date: Aug. 9, 1966

Case Ongoing

Filed in 1966 and still ongoing as of 2022, this is one of the most significant housing desegregation cases ever, leading to the nation's first desegregative housing mobility voucher program. In coll…

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Gautreaux v. HUD [Weaver, Romney, Hills, etc.]

01:66-cv-01460 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Filed Date: Aug. 9, 1966

Closed Date: Aug. 26, 1997

This Clearinghouse record deals with the federal defendant component of this complex public housing desegregation case. Filed in 1966, this part of the case ended in 1997--but the consolidated lawsui…

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PRISON CONDITIONS

Washington v. Lee

66-cv-02350 | U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

Filed Date: Feb. 18, 1966

Closed Date: 1970

On February 18, 1966, a class action lawsuit challenging racial discrimination in Alabama's correctional system was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama agains…

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PRISON CONDITIONS

Jordan v. Fitzharris

65-44786 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Filed Date: Oct. 14, 1965

Closed Date: Sept. 6, 1966

In approximately 1966, an inmate at the California Correctional Training Facility at Soledad filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the California Department of Corrections in the U.S. Distri…

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SCHOOL DESEGREGATION

U.S. v. Jefferson County Bd. of Ed./Stout v. Jefferson County Bd. of Ed.

2:65-cv-00396 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama

Filed Date: June 4, 1965

Case Ongoing

This is the case in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals took the firm position that "freedom of choice" plans could be legally insufficient to meet the constitutional obligations of a formerly d…

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JUVENILE INSTITUTION

Singleton v. Board of Commissioners

63-cv-00963 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida

Filed Date: Nov. 12, 1963

Closed Date: March 5, 1971

Black inmates of the Florida state reform schools filed a class-action lawsuit against the Board of Commissioners of the schools in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida…

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SCHOOL DESEGREGATION

Lee v. Macon County Bd. of Ed.

3:63-cv-00604 | U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

Filed Date: Jan. 28, 1963

Closed Date: 1970

IntroductionThis case began on 1963 when a group of Black students and parents sought to desegregate the twenty public schools of Macon County, Alabama. At that time seventeen of the county’s schools…

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SCHOOL DESEGREGATION

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

5:51-cv-04316 | U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas

Filed Date: Feb. 28, 1951

Closed Date: July 27, 1999

This is the case in which the U.S. Supreme Court announced in 1954 that segregated schools were inherently unequal, and in 1955 required school districts to desegregate "with all deliberate speed." …

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