Case: Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board

In 1952, this school desegregation suit was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The plaintiffs, African-American school children by and through their parents, sued the defendant Orleans Parish School board to enjoin the operation of a segregated school district in Orleans Parish. The plaintiffs were represented by, among others, Thurgood Marshall (for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund).

School desegregation efforts proceeded in Orleans Parish the face of vicious opposition primarily on the part of the Louisiana state legislature, which remained in staunch defiance of the repeated mandates to comply with the Court's decision in Brown. In the wake of Brown, the Louisiana legislature had passed numerous statutes that purported to reaffirm segregation on the state's schools.

The case initially came before Judge J. Skelly Wright, who ruled in 1956 that the Orleans Parish Schools were operating in violation of the Constitution. The state legislature initiated prolonged resistance, repeatedly passing measures aimed at nullifying the federal government's authority to mandate and impose desegregation. Judge Wright struck those measures down and ordered the desegregation of the school district.

On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first child to integrate -- an event that was later memorialized in Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With."

Later that year, the case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled per curiam that the state's attempts to nullify federal law were unconstitutional. United States v. Louisiana, 364 U.S. 500 (Dec. 12, 1960) (per curiam).

By 1962, the state's outright assault had largely subsided and the Board and the private plaintiffs negotiated with the district court (then through Judge Frank Ellis) on a plan to desegregate the district's schools.

In 1975, the district court (Judge Hubert W. Christianberry) ruled that the Orleans Parish schools had achieved unitary status.

Available Opinions

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 138 F.Supp. 336 (E.D. La. Feb. 15, 1956) (per curiam) (striking down statutes) (Wright, J.)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 138 F.Supp. 337 (E.D. La. Feb. 15, 1956) (granting injunctive relief)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 242 F.2d 156 (5th Cir. Mar. 1, 1957) (No. 16190), cert. denied by 354 U.S. 921 (1957) (affirming district court)

Orleans Parish School Board v. Bush, 252 F.2d 253 (5th Cir. Feb. 13, 1958), cert. denied by 356 U.S. 969 (1958) (denying appeal of preliminary injunction)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 163 F.Supp. 701 (E.D. La. July 1, 1958) (striking down LA statute)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 187 F.Supp. 42 (E.D. La. Aug. 27, 1960) (striking down LA statute)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 364 U.S. 803 (Sept. 1, 1960) (denying motion to vacate orders from district court)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 188 F.Supp. 916 (E.D. La. Nov. 30, 1960) (enjoining enforcement of all actions to block desegregation and denying defendants’ motion to vacate or stay efforts)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 190 F.Supp. 861 (E.D. La. Dec. 21, 1960) (per curiam) (striking down further legislative acts to block desegregation)

United States v. Louisiana, 364 U.S. 500 (Dec. 12, 1960) (per curiam) (striking down state’s efforts to nullify federal desegregation mandate)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 191 F.Supp. 871 (E.D. La. Mar. 3, 1961), aff’d sub nom Legislature of Louisiana v. United States, 367 U.S. 908 (June 19, 1961) (per curiam)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 194 F.Supp. 182 (E.D. La. May 4, 1961), aff’d sub nom Gremillion v. United States, 368 U.S. 11 (Oct. 16, 1961) (per curiam) (blocking further efforts by state to thwart desegregation efforts)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 204 F.Supp. 568 (E.D. La. Apr. 3, 1962)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 205 F.Supp. 893 (E.D. La. May 23, 1962) (Ellis, J.)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 308 F.2d 491 (5th Cir. Aug. 6, 1962)

Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 230 F.Supp. 509 (E.D. La. May 18, 1963)