Leading by Example, Part 2

Leading by Example, Part 2. March Route for Moral Justice. Another goal of the ACMHR was school desegregation. ACMHR members like barber James Armstrong filed lawsuits to put their children in better-funded all-White schools after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas outlawed "separate but equal” public schools. Alabama, like other Southern states, vowed "massive resistance to the high court's decision. They created pupil placement laws that basically allowed school officials to avoid integrating public schools. Once again, Rev. Shuttlesworth took personal steps to lead by example. , Paired marker , September 1957 , Frustrated by Birmingham city school officials' tactics to prevent school integration, Rev. Shuttlesworth and his wife Ruby attempted to enroll their children at all-White Phillips High School in September 1957. News reporters who had gathered near the school saw a few police officers and about 20 White men. The men - using bicycle chains, brass knuckles and fists - attacked Rev. Shuttlesworth as he got out of the car. His wife was stabbed in the hip as she went to help him. His daughter's ankle was slammed in the car door. The ACMHR later filed legal charges against the Board of Education. Here, the men who attacked them at the school cover their faces as they leave the Birmingham City Jail. , "Oh Mother America! Where is the solace for thy children's ills?"