Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education
Prudence Crandall's Legacy
When Prudence Crandall integrated her Connecticut school in the 1830s she was arrested, jailed, and catapulted to national notoriety. Her series of trials, and Crandall v. State, influenced two of the most fateful Supreme Court decisions, Dred Scott v. Sandford and Brown v. Board of Education. Donald E. Williams, Jr. chronicles the life of Crandall, her role in the anti-slavery movement, and her life-long fight for equality for blacks and women.
"This book about Prudence Crandall's legacy serves to remind us once more how close in time America is to the darkest days of our history. I refer to the time when government lawfully separated schoolchildren from one another on the basis of their color. Thanks to Prudence Crandall's Legacy, we should be reminded that such barbarous practices survived into the twentieth century. The struggle in which Prudence Crandall engaged continues in the twenty-first." Attorney Jack Greenberg, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who defended Martin Luther King and helped argue Brown v. Board of Education.
Prudence Crandall's Legacy is available at local bookstores, the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, CT, and online: