On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v. Board of Education stating segregated schools were inherently unequal. The doctrine of "separate but equal" was no longer constitutionally valid. The next year, the Court reaffirmed their decision and ordered southern states to comply with the order and desegregate their schools "with all deliberate speed." The ambiguity of the timeframe allowed southern states to delay implementation of the orders leading some, like Roy Wilkins, to charge that a conspiracy existed to deny equality to African Americans.
