In 1954 the Supreme Court unanimously decided that school segregation was unconstitutional. The actual process of school desegregation continued into the early seventies. These images document civil rights protests to integrate buses, stores, theaters, and beaches.
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Photographed on May 5, 1941.
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Virginia Beach is off the coast of Miami in Dade County.
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The headline is for the Supreme Court's ruling in the Brown versus Board of Education case. May 17, 1954.
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Morris Thomas refused this Tallahassee bus driver's request to move to the back of the bus. Thomas lived in Midway, but was home on leave from the Navy. He heard about a possible demonstration, did not know it had been called off. December 27, 1956.
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Reverend C. K. Steele (on right) and Edwin Norwood (in middle) protested segregated seating on Tallahassee city buses. African Americans had boycotted the bus system for nearly seven months after the arrest of two FAMU women students for sitting beside a white woman. As a result of the boycott, 21 members of the Inter Civic Council were convicted on charges of operating an illegal transportation system set up as a car pool without a franchise. December 1956.
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L-R: Reverend C. K. Steele, John Boardman and Reverend J. Raymond Henderson of California at the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. Boardman, a white FSU student pursuing a doctorate in physics, was expelled because of his activities with the Inter-Civic Council.
Image number: N047239
He drove an independent taxi in the 1940s & 50s. In response to demands from civil rights activists during the bus boycott, he became the first African American to drive buses for the Tallahassee City Transit on a regular route.
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The boycott and picketing were done because of lack of progress in desegregating the lunch counters at Neisner's McCrory's, F.W. Woolworth's, Walgreen's and Sear's stores. December 6-7, 1960.
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Protesting against the arrest of 23 of their classmates earlier today when they took part in lunch counter demonstrations, these Negro students from Florida A. & M. University carry signs reading "Give us back our students," and "We will not fight mobs." About 250 students took part in the march, which reportedly was brought under control by tear gas. Demonstrators seeking service in Tallahassee department stores nearly touched off a riot about noon Saturday. All available police officers were called on duty. The man in the black sweater at the far right is William Larkins, F.A.M.U.'s student government president. March 12, 1960.
