Browder v. Gayle

"Browder v. Gayle", 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956), was a case heard before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama regarding Montgomery bus segregation laws. It was the US District Court's ruling in this case that ended segregation on Montgomery public buses.

Case history

Right after the commencement of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in December 1955, black community leaders began discussion about the need for a federal lawsuit to challenge City of Montgomery and Alabama bus segregation laws. They sought a declaratory judgment that Alabama state statutes and ordinances of the city of Montgomery providing for and enforcing racial segregation on "privately" operated buses abridged the privileges and immunities of plaintiffs and denied them equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment and the rights guaranteed them by Sections 1981 and 1983 of the Civil Rights Act. This case came before a three-judge court under the authority of 28 U.S.C., § 2281, and 28 U.S.C., §§ 1331 and 1343. A three-judge district court is required under § 2281 for the granting of an interlocutory, or permanent injunction restraining the enforcement of a state statute by restraining the action of a state officer, such as an official of the Alabama Public Service Commission. The court held that given the admission of city officials that they were enforcing state statutes, a three-judge court had jurisdiction over the case.

Background

About two months after the bus boycott began, the case of Claudette Colvin, a girl only 15 years old, was re-considered by black legal leaders. Attorneys Fred Gray, E.D. Nixon and Clifford Durr (a white lawyer who, with his wife Virginia, was an activist in the civil rights movement) searched for the ideal case law to challenge the constitutional legitimacy of Montgomery and Alabama bus segregation laws. Durr believed that an appeal of Mrs. Rosa Parks' case would just get tied up in the Alabama state courts. Gray researched for the law suit, consulting with NAACP legal counsels Robert Carter and Thurgood Marshall (who would later become United States solicitor general and a United States Supreme Court justice). Gray approached Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith, who were all women who had been mistreated by the Montgomery bus system. They all agreed to become plaintiffs in a civil action law suit.

Ruling

On February 1, 1956, Fred Gray filed the case "Browder v. Gayle" (Browder was a Montgomery housewife; Gayle was the mayor of Montgomery) in U.S. District Court.

In June 1956 the District Court ruled that "the enforced segregation of Negro and white passengers on motor buses operating in the City of Montgomery violates the Constitution and laws of the United States," because the conditions deprived people of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. The court further enjoined the state of Alabama and city of Montgomery from continuing to operate segregated buses.

See also

* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), case upholding segregated schools.
* Brown v. Board of Education (1954), declared segregated schools were inherently unequal.

References

* [http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/browder_v_gayle.htm Browder v. Gayle] , District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division, June 19, 1956, retrieved October 29, 2005.